Full text of "Letters Of The Empress Frederick"

See other formats

LETTERS OF THE
EMPRESS FREDERICK

MACMDLLAN AND CO,, lorn

LONDON • BOMBAY * CALCUTTA * MADRAS
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO
DALLAS • SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO, OF CANADA, la

TORONTO

_ /A c O infircss _ I re clcn ck
1900

LETTERS OF
THE EMPRESS FREDERICK

edited by

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

SIR FREDERICK PONSONBY

G.C.B., G.C.V.O.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1928

First Edition October 1928
Repritited October 1928

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
Rf & R. CLARK? LIMITED,

PREFACE

THE main purpose of this volume of the letters of the
Empress Frederick has been to allow the Empress's own
words to provide the answer to those cruel and slanderous
accusations from which her memory has suffered. For
this reason the running commentary necessary to enable
the reader to understand the letters has been reduced to
the minimum.

These letters, while fairly representing the thoughts
and opinions of the Empress, give but a very imperfect
picture of her character and personality. An advanced
thinker of strong liberal views, she hesitated to express
such views freely to Queen Victoria, to whom she knew
they would not be acceptable. Moreover, the Empress's
many artistic activities had associated her with the
world of art, where she had imbibed modern theories
which did not appeal to the Queen. Consequently the
letters hardly refer to those aesthetic tastes which were
an outstanding feature in her life.

The material available not being sufficient for a com-
plete biography, the best course seemed to be to concen-
trate entirely on the letters. It may be urged that a
publication must be premature in which, for judicious
reasons, some interesting material has to be suppressed.
On the other hand, to delay the production of these letters
would be to postpone them for a new generation to whom

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

the Empress Frederick would be unknown except as an
historic figure.

The letters speak for themselves. They represent a
regular weekly, almost daily, correspondence, character-
ised by the same dutiful tone on the part of the Empress
and the same affectionate wisdom from Queen Victoria.

In this volume of letters reference is made to more
recent publications containing allusions to the Empress
and in the majority of cases acknowledgment is made in
the footnote. This, however, does not apply to several
letters from Queen Victoria to the Empress and from the
Empress to Queen Victoria which have already appeared
in The. Letters of Queen Victoria^ edited by Mr. George
Earle Buckle, and my thanks are due to Sir John Murray
for permission to make use of this material.

The papers of my father, the late Sir Henry Ponsonby,
contained letters which, though fragmentary, throw side-
lights on the subjects discussed by the Empress : these
have also been included.

To the Honourable Mrs. Hovell I am indebted for
many details connected with her husband's experiences
at San Remo and also for allowing me to see the papers
and newspaper cuttings she had collected dealing with
the Emperor Frederick's illness.

To many friends I am indebted for advice, but par-
ticularly to Sir Rennell Rodd who found time to read
through the proofs and make many valuable suggestions.
Having been an intimate friend of the Empress Frederick
and Secretary of Embassy in Berlin during the most in-
teresting part of her life, there is no one living who has
a more intimate knowledge of the history of Germany
during that period. I am under a great obligation to Mr.
S. F. Markham, M.A., for the invaluable assistance he
vi

PREFACE

gave me. I have also to th£nk Mr. A. V. Marten for having
undertaken the arduous task of transcribing the letters,
and finally my thanks are due to Mr. Emery Walker for
the very artistic reproductions he has made of the photo-
graphs of the Empress Frederick.

F. E. G. PONSONBY.

INTRODUCTION

THE circumstances under which the letters of the Empress
Frederick came into my possession are so exceptional and
even dramatic that I make no apology for giving them in
detail.

Soon after King Edward came to the throne in
1901, the accounts of the Empress Frederick's health be-
gan to be alarming, and as she was his favourite sister,
he decided to go and stay with her for a week at
Friedrichshof, near Cronberg. He took with him Sir
Francis Laking, his physician in ordinary, and myself
as Equerry and Private Secretary. The addition of Sir
Francis Laking to his suite was very much resented not
only by the German* doctors attending the Empress, who
rightly thought she was past all medical aid, but also by
the Emperor's suite, who considered his presence to be a
slur on the German medical profession. It was, however,
the King's idea that possibly Sir Francis Laking might
do something to mitigate her terrible sufferings by ad-
ministering narcotics in larger doses than the German
doctors were accustomed to give.

After I had been at Friedrichschof for three days, I
received a message that the Empress wished to see me in
the evening at six o'clock. At the hour named I went
upstairs and was shown into her sitting-room where I
found her propped up with cushions ; she looked as if

I ix

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

she had just been taken off the rack after undergoing tor-
ture. The nurse signed to me to sit down and whispered
that the Empress would be better in a moment as she had
been given an injection of morphia. I sat down feeling
very helpless in the presence of so much suffering, and
waited. Suddenly the Empress opened her eyes and began
to speak. How did I like Friedrichschof ? What did I
think of it ? Had I seen all her art treasures ? The im-
pression that I was talking to a dying woman vanished
and I was suddenly conscious that I had to deal with a
person who was very much alive and alert. We talked of
the South African War and of the way it was being mis-
represented in Europe, and we discussed the political
situation in England. She asked searching questions about
the King's position as a constitutional monarch and ex-
pressed her admiration of our constitution, but after a
quarter of an hour this intense conversation and hurricane
of questions seemed to tire her and she closed her eyes.
I remained silent, uncertain whether I ought not leave the
room. Just then the nurse came in and said I had been
over twenty minutes and that I really must go. " A few
minutes more ", said the Empress, and the nurse appar-
ently consented, for she left the room. After a pause the
Empress opened her eyes and said, " There is something
I want you to do for me. I want you to take charge of
my letters and take them with you back to England/'
When I expressed my readiness to undertake their custody
she seemed pleased and went on in a dreamy sort of way :
<c I will send them to you at one o'clock to-night and I
know I can rely on your discretion, I don't want a soul
to know that they have been taken away and certainly
Willie [her son, the Emperor William II.] must not have
them, nor must he ever know you have got them."
x:

INTRODUCTION

Our conversation was again interrupted by the en-
trance of the nurse, who explained that the Empress had
said " a few minutes' conversation " and I had been with
her for over half an hour. This time there was no doubt
I had to go and so I retired to my room wondering if the
Empress had said all that there was to be said on the
subject.

I dined as usual with King Edward. On this occasion
the German Emperor, the Duchess of Sparta (afterwards
Queen of the Hellenes), Princess Frederick Charles of
Hesse (both daughters of the Empress), Countess Per-
poncher, Count Eulenburg, General von Kessel, General
von Scholl, Rear-Admiral von Mxiller, Count Hohenau
and the German doctors Renvers and Spielhagen were
also present. After dinner we talked till about eleven,
when everyone went to bed. I went to my bedroom
and started work. There was so much to do that the
time passed quickly.

This was the first time King Edward had gone abroad
since he had ascended the throne. Prior to his accession
one Equerry had been able to attend to his correspond-
ence, etc., during his visits abroad, and at first he was
under the impression that there would be no necessity to
increase the number now that he was king. But, as he
found out later, it was a totally different proposition, and
the work was really more than one man could do. In
addition to his official boxes and letters, the ciphering
and deciphering of telegrams, and the arrangement for
the Foreign Office King's Messengers, there were the
requisition of special trains, instructions to the royal yacht
and the escort of cruisers, the ordering of guards of
honour and the mass of small detail connected with any
continental journev^ But what made all this doubly diffi-

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

cult was the fact that I had to accompany the King
whenever he went out and that often he was out all the
afternoon. I had no shorthand clerk in those days and
therefore it meant writing till 2 A.M. every night.

The castle clock boomed one and I waited expect-
antly, but there was dead silence, and I was coming to
the conclusion that I had either misunderstood or that
some unforeseen obstacle had prevented the letters reach-
ing me, when I heard a quiet knock on my door. I said
" Herein ", and four men came in carrying two boxes
about the size of portmanteaux, and covered with black
oilcloth. The cords round them were quite new and on
each box was a plain white label with neither name nor
address. I noticed that the men wore blue serge breeches
and long riding boots and I came to the conclusion that
they were not trusted retainers but stablemen quite ignor-
ant of what the boxes contained. They put the two boxes
down and retired without saying a word.

It now dawned on me that I had undertaken no easy
task, and I began to wonder how I was to get such large
boxes back to England without anyone suspecting their
contents. I had assumed, perhaps not unnaturally, that
the expression " letters " meant a packet of letters that I
should have no difficulty in concealing in one of my port-
manteaux. But these large corded boxes were quite an-
other matter and the problem of getting them back to
England required careful thought. To adopt any method
of concealment and to attempt to smuggle them away
was to court disaster, as the whole place was full of secret
police, but on the other hand, to account for these boxes
which had apparently dropped from the skies was no easy
matter. I therefore wrote on the label of one " Books
with care " and on the other " China with care ", with
xii

INTRODUCTION

my private address, and determined to place them in the
passage with my empty boxes without any attempt at
concealment.

The next morning my servant was astonished to find
this weighty addition to my luggage, but I explained in
an offhand way that they were things I had bought in
Homburg, and that I wanted them placed in the passage.
Perhaps even this was injudicious, as the first thing that
happened was a visit from King Edward's courier, M.
Fehr, who said that strict instructions had been given to
the servants that nothing was to be allowed to come into
the castle unless it was passed by himself or the Emperor's
Chief of Police ; yet in spite of all these precautions he
found that two boxes of goods from Homburg had
reached me without anyone knowing anything about
them! This was very awkward, and I felt I was making a
bad start. I told him that Custom House officers were
bad enough, but if he began to make trouble before I
started I should never get the goods into England. " It
is at the Custom House I want your help, not here," I
said in an aggrieved voice. Under the impression that
the boxes contained something contraband and that I in-
tended to invoke his aid to get them through the Custom
House he became very confidential and said I could rely
on his help. So the boxes remained with my other lug-
gage and were seen by everyone who passed along that
passage,

On March i, 1901, we left Friedrichshof to return to
London. That day a party of soldiers from the garrison
was employed to carry all the luggage down. I was
talking to the Emperor in the hall at the time and out of
the corner of my eye I could see the procession of soldiers
carrying portmanteaux, suit-cases, despatch boxes, etc. ;

xiii

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

when these two black boxes came past they looked so
different from the rest of the luggage that I became
nervous lest someone should inquire what they were, but
no one appeared to notice them, and the Emperor went on
talking. When they disappeared from the hall I breathed
again, but not for long because, as ill-luck would have it,
they were the last to be placed on the wagon which stood
in front of the windows of the great hall, and there
seemed something wrong with the tarpaulin cover. The
other wagons were covered up, but this particular wagon
remained uncovered with these two boxes with their new
cords and labels staring at me. The Emperor, however,
was holding forth on some subject that interested him,
and naturally everyone, including myself, listened atten-
tively. It was a great relief when I at last saw the tar-
paulin cover drawn over the luggage and a few minutes
later heard the wagon rumble away.

After I arrived in England I took the two boxes to
my private house, Cell Farm at Old Windsor, and locked
them up.

On August 5, 1901, the Empress Frederick died at
Friedrichshof, Cronberg, and the funeral took place on
the i3th. It was a long-drawn-out ceremony beginning
with a service in the little church at Cronberg, after which
the body was taken by train to Potsdam where the final
service was held. King Edward this time took with
him Lord Clarendon (die Lord Chamberlain), Admiral
Sir John Fullerton, Major-General Sir Stanley Clarke,
the Honourable Sidney Greville, and myself as Private
Secretary.

One evening after dinner Count Eulenburg, the head
of the Emperor's household, took me aside and said he
wanted to speak to me quite confidentially. He explained
xiv

INTRODUCTION

that when the Empress Frederick died, no letters or papers
had been found, although a thorough search had been
made, and the Emperor wished me to ascertain, without
making too much of it, whether by chance these letters
were in the archives at Windsor. To give some idea of
how thorough the search was at Cronberg, Sir Arthur
Davidson, who happened to be at Homburg at the time
and who drove out to Friedrichshof, told me that the
grounds were all surrounded by cavalry and the castle
itself by special police, while competent searchers ran-
sacked every room.

I replied that there would be no difficulty about this
and that I would write at once to Lord Esher, who was
Keeper of the Archives. I accordingly did so, knowing
full well that Lord Esher was quite unaware of the exist-
ence of these letters, and in due course I received a reply
saying that they were certainly not in the archives. This
I forwarded to Count Eulenburg, who wrote a short note
thanking me for all the trouble I had taken.

Some years later I had another conversation with him
on the subject and he seemed then to suspect that I was
in some way connected with the disappearance of these
letters. He asked me several questions about my visit
to Friedrichshof, all of which I was able to answer with
candour, although I was conscious at the time that these
questions were merely the preliminary overtures to more
searching and precise inquiries. Fortunately we were
interrupted before we got down to the pith of the matter
and I was saved from embarrassing questions.

So the letters have remained undisturbed for the last
twenty-seven years, and during all this time the question
what the Empress intended me to do with them has con-
stantly occurred to me. Obviously I was not meant to

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

bum them, because she could easily have done this herself
had she wanted to do so. With every desire to carry out
the wishes of a dying woman, I wanted to make sure that
I was rightly interpreting them, but there was no one who
could throw any light on the matter ; no one to whom
the Empress had confided her intentions. There seems no
doubt that her letters to Queen Victoria must have been
sent out from England to her at Friedrichshof, and the
question therefore arises why did she send for these letters
when she must have known she had not long to live ?
The theory that she intended to look through them and
select some for publication is strengthened by the fact
that occasionally whole pages are rendered undecipher-
able with erasures. This must have been her work, and
if this is the case it is clear that she wished to erase certain
passages from the letters before they were eventually
published. The fact that she should have sent for these
letters, looked through them, deleted passages, and finally
have sent them back to England seems to point to her
having contemplated their publication.

Having come to the conclusion that the time had
arrived when the letters must be sent away to prevent
their being destroyed, she thought she could not do
better than entrust them to me. I was not only her god-
son and the son of one of her greatest friends, but I
would have exceptional facilities for taking them to
England.

The curious part is that she should not have confided
her intention to her brother, King Edward, or given him
any hint of what she had in her mind. Presumably the
fact that her letters to Queen Victoria had been sent out
to her must have been known by King Edward and,
therefore, if she merely intended to send them back to
xvi

INTRODUCTION

the archives, it would only have been natural for her
to entrust them to her brother. That she did not do so
points to her having wished something more done with
them, something which she feared would not meet with
his approval. Whether she intended to see me again in
order to explain her intentions or whether, if the nurse
had not interrupted us, she would have done so at the
time, must necessarily remain hypotheses that can never
be verified.

The most probable theory is that when Bismarck's
Reminiscences was published and other contemporary
memoirs appeared, she writhed under the criticisms of
her conduct and objected to the part she was depicted as
having played in German politics. She therefore was
determined that her side of the question should at least
have a hearing and she intended to select certain letters
and edit them for publication, at the same time obliterat-
ing any passages that were indiscreet and which time had
proved to be inaccurate. Her terrible illness made this
impossible, and all she was able to do was to erase certain
passages. Finding that her end was approaching, she
determined to confide her intentions to me, but circum-
stances prevented her from doing more than giving me
the letters. It seems quite inconceivable that if I was
merely to hand them back to the King or put them back
in the archives, she should not have said so at once or
have spoken to her brother on the subject, more especially
as she saw him daily during his visit.

On looking through the letters that had been en-
trusted to my care I found the following letter or memor-
andum that had been written to Queen Victoria a few
months after the death of the Emperor Frederick.1

1 The date would appear to be about September 13, 1888.

xvii

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

MEMORANDUM CONCERNING THE COLLECTING OF
MATERIAL FOR A LIFE OF FRITZ

As I have never kept a diary the only documents of the thirty
years of our married life that exist are my letters to dear Mama,
and my correspondence with Fritz. Dear Mama could do me the
most immense service, if she would let someone most trustworthy
and discreet (under Sir Th. Martin's supervision) be allowed to
make extracts from my letters to her concerning the political
events, also matters of the court and our life here, etc., with a
view to my having selections made and translated — from those
extracts later. If dear Mama would allow this to be set about
soon, it would be a great service to me. My letters to Stockmar
are all burnt, those to Countess Bliicher also. I must not let the
matter rest, I may die any day, and the truth which is being so
systematically smothered and twisted must be put down some-
where, no matter whether it be published in my lifetime or no.
I feel that my memory has suffered terribly by the shock I have
sustained and by the sorrow which seems to have shaken the very
foundations of my being.

I can still remember things which I might not remember later.
I ought at least to begin to arrange my material. I should be very
thankful if dear Mama could help me in this way.

This seems to confirm the theory that the Empress
wished her version of events published and that she even
considered the possibility of publication during her life-
time.

After her death in 1901, 1 came to the conclusion that
it was not in her interests that these letters should then
be published. Even assuming they had been entrusted to
me for this purpose, I felt that these wishes had not been
expressed with sufficient clearness to warrant my attempt-
ing any immediate publication.

These letters have therefore remained untouched dur-
ing the last twenty-seven years, and it was only the con-
tinual reference to and criticism of the Empress Frederick
xviii

INTRODUCTION

in recent publications that led me to reconsider my re-
sponsibility in the matter. These criticisms have been so
bitter and so unjust that in the interests of historic truth,
to say nothing of the memory of the Empress Frederick,
I came to the conclusion that these letters should now
be published.

xix

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

BIRTH, EDUCATION AND MARRIAGE i

CHAPTER II
EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA 13

CHAPTER III
THE AUSTRIAN WAR 56

CHAPTER IV
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR 70

CHAPTER V
BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878 . . . .129

CHAPTER VI
THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY * . ,167

CHAPTER VII
FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886 187

CHAPTER Vffl
PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG . . . . 199

CHAPTER IX

THE ILLNESS OF THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK , . 224

xxi

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK
CHAPTER X

PAGE

SAN REMO ....... 251

CHAPTER XI
THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK . . . 286

CHAPTER XH
THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II. . . . . .317

CHAPTER XHI
THE WAR DIARY OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK . -339

CHAPTER XIV

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND, 1889 . 366

CHAPTER XV
THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK . . . -387

CHAPTER XVI
CAPRIVI'S CHANCELLORSHIP . . . . . 415

CHAPTER XVH
CLOSING YEARS ....... 450

INDEX ........ 475

xxii

LIST OF PORTRAITS

THE EMPRESS FREDERICK, 1900. From a photo-
graph by T. A. Voigt . . . Frontispiece

THE PRINCESS ROYAL. From a lithograph

published in Berlin .... Facing page $

THE CROWN PRINCESS, 1860. From the portrait

by Heinrich von Angeli ... „ 26

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND PRINCE WILLIAM,

1876. From a photograph by T. Priim , „ 144

XXffl

CHAPTER I

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

THE Empress Frederick was born at Windsor on Novem- 1 840
her 21, 1840. Although there was naturally disappoint-
ment that the first child born to Queen Victoria and
Prince Albert should be a daughter and not a son, the
British public gave a sigh of relief, since it rendered the
possibility of a Cumberland succession still more remote.
Hitherto, the next heir to the throne had been the un-
popular Ernest, Duke of Cumberland, the " Hanoverian
ogre ", as he was called, whose hideous features, accentu-
ated by a distorted eye, whose vindictive bad temper,
reactionary politics and dissolute private life made him
feared and hated by the great mass of the people.

The birth of the Princess Royal was welcomed in the
illustrated journals of the time with a shower of kindly, if
not always refined, caricatures, according to the custom
of the period. The infant daughter, Victoria Adelaide
Mary Louisa, who now became the next in succession
to the throne, was christened at Buckingham Palace on
February 10, 1841, The sponsors were Prince Albert's 1841
brother, Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg (represented in his
absence by the Duke of Wellington), Leopold, King of
the Belgians (who had been the husband of the unfortu-
nate Princess Charlotte), Adelaide, the Queen Dowager,
the Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester and the
Duke of Sussex.

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

upon his eldest son — gave her qualities of concentration 1851
and assimilation which she never lost.

The young Princess had barely entered her teens
before rumour began to be rife about prospective hus-
bands. Early in the field with sound advice on the sub-
jectwas Leopold I., King of the Belgians, Queen Victoria's
trusted uncle, counsellor and friend. The fact, however,
that a young Teutonic Prince had already made up his
mind to win the Princess rendered King Leopold's dis-
sertations on the advantages to be derived from certain
alliances a mere waste of paper.

In fairy stories it is customary for the Prince and
Princess of neighbouring kingdoms to meet and fall in
love without the knowledge of their subsequently de-
lighted parents, but that a romance of this kind should
actually happen in mid- Victorian England seems difficult to
believe. The somewhat stilted and artificial romanticism
of the fifties hardly prepares the mind for so charming an
idyll. It was in the year 1851 that the Princess first met
her future husband, Prince Frederick William of Prussia.
In that year Europe was ringing with the wonders of the
Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, that ironic herald of a
decade of war, and the young Prince, sent by his father,
the future King William I. of Prussia, to study the crown-
ing triumph of Prince Albert's energetic idealism, was
the guest of Queen Victoria. Very tall and broad, he was a
fine figure of a man to captivate the heart of a young girl,
and the touch of austerity imparted by a lonely upbringing
may well have been an added charm to the young Princess.
At this time he was barely twenty and had seen little of the
world, but he was accompanied by a sister a year or two
older, Princess Louise of Prussia, who was devoted to
him. When this young German Princess became the firm

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1851 friend of the Princess Royal and went about constantly
with her, it followed that the three young people were often
thrown together, the Princess Royal's youth protecting
her from a vigilance which in those days would have
been rigorously opposed to any idea of " self-determina-
tion " in the affairs of the heart.

1855 At the end of August 1855, Queen Victoria and Prince
Albert paid a visit to the French Emperor, Napoleon IIL,
in return for the visit he had paid them in the April of
that year, and the Queen and her Consort took with them
the Princess Royal, now fifteen years of age, and the
Prince of Wales. This visit made a lasting impression on
the young Princess. The English royal family were re-
ceived with the greatest magnificence, and many of the
beautiful sights of Paris were shown to them. Their im-
perial host, now at the zenith of his power and popularity,
was unremitting in attentive courtesies to his guests. " To
the children, who behaved beautifully and had the most
extraordinary success," Queen Victoria wrote to Baron
Stockmar on September i, " his goodness, and judicious
kindness, weregraz*, and they are excessively fond of him."
" Leur sejour en France ", she wrote to the Emperor on
August 29, " a ete la plus heureuse epoque de leur vie, et
ils ne cessent d'en parler." Certainly the youthful Prin-
cess did not forget the wonders of the visit, and fifteen
years later, when disaster had made the Emperor a fugi-
tive, the Princess recalled, with still vivid remembrance,
the happiness of that week in Paris.

It was Princess Augusta of Prussia, the mother of
Prince Frederick, who had first suggested the possibility of
a marriage, but when she proposed to visit England with
the intention of discussing the matter, her uncle, Frederick
William IV. of Prussia, influenced by his pro-Russian
4

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

consort, did not look upon the proposal with favour and 1855
for the time being it remained in abeyance. At the period
the Crimean War was in progress and the Russian lean-
ings of the Prussian court rendered an English alliance
uncongenial.

Three weeks after their return home from France,
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert welcomed to Balmoral
Prince Frederick William, whose determination to marry
the Princess Royal had only been strengthened by the
opposition of the Prussian court. Prince Frederick,
having won over his parents to his wishes, now decided
to put his fortune to the test. Exacting as no doubt the
Prince Consort was in his demands for an ideal son-in-
law, he could find but little fault with this young German
Prince, and the only opposition came from the Queen,
who pleaded for delay on account of the extreme youth
of her daughter. Her counsel of prudence seemed about
to prevail when Prince Frederick refused to return home
without coming to some understanding, and eventually,
in response to his appeals, Queen Victoria gave way and
permitted him to pay court to her daughter. The follow-
ing day, September 21, 1855, Prince Albert wrote to the
Earl of Clarendon :

I may tell you in the strictest confidence that Prince Frederick
William has yesterday laid before us his wish for an alliance with the
Princess Royal, with the full concurrence of his parents, as well as of
the King of Prussia. We have accepted his proposal as far as we are
personally concerned, but have asked that the child should not be
made acquainted with it until after her confirmation, which is to
take place next Spring, when he might make it to her himself, and
receive from her own lips the answer which is only valuable when
flowing from those of the person chiefly concerned. A marriage
would not be possible before the completion of the Princess's seven-
teenth year, which is in two years from this time. The Queen

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

empowers me to say that you may communicate this event to Lord
Palrnerston, but we beg that under present circumstances it may be
kept a strict secret. What the world may say we cannot help.

The following day Queen Victoria wrote to the King
of the Belgians:

MY DEAREST UNCLE — I profit by your own messenger to con-
fide to you, and to you alone, begging you not to mention it to your
children, that our wishes on the subject of a future marriage for
Vicky have been realised in the most gratifying and satisfactory
manner.

On .Thursday (loth) after breakfast, Fritz Wilhelm said he was
anxious to speak of a subject which he knew his parents had never
broached to us — which was to belong to our Family ; that this had
long been his wish, that he had the entire concurrence and approval
not only of his parents but of the King — and that finding Vicky
so allerlielste^ he could delay no longer in making this proposal,
which, however, I have little — indeed no — doubt that she will gladly
accept. He is a dear, excellent, charming young man, whom we
shall give our dear child to with perfect confidence. What pleases
us so greatly is to see that he is really delighted with Vicky.

Nine days later Queen Victoria noted in her Journal :
" Our dear Victoria was this day engaged to Prince
Frederick William of Prussia, who had been on a visit to
us since the i4th. He had already spoken to us on the
loth of his wishes, but we were uncertain on account of
her extreme youth, whether he should speak to her him-
self or wait till he came back again. However, we felt
it was better he should do so, and during our ride up
Craig-na-Ban this afternoon, he picked a piece of white
heather (the emblem of ' Good luck ') which he gave to
her ; and this enabled him to make an allusion to his
hopes and wishes as they rode down Glen Girnoch, which
led to this happy conclusion." x

1 Leaves from Our Journal in the Highlands, September 29, 1855.

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

These letters make no reference to the feelings of the 1856
Princess, but the assumption is not too far-fetched that
far from objecting to the advances of the Prussian Prince
she found in them a keen source of happiness. The
engagement was kept secret, but rumour soon began to
spread, and on March 20, 1856, Mr. Cobden wrote to a
friend :

... It is generally thought that the young Prince Frederick
William of Prussia is to be married to our Princess Royal. I was
dining t£te-a-tete with Mr. Buchanan, the American Minister, a few
days ago, who had dined the day before at the Queen's table and sat
next to the Princess Royal. He was in raptures about her, and said
she was the most charming girl he had ever met : " All life and
spirit, full of frolic and fun, with an excellent head, and a heart as big
as a mountain " — those were his words. Another friend of mine,
Colonel Fitzmayer, dined with the Queen last week, and in writing
to me a description of the company he says that when the Princess
Royal smiles ** it makes one feel as if additional light were thrown
upon the scene " — so I should judge that this said Prince is a lucky
fellow and I trust he will make a good husband. If not, although a
man of peace, I shall consider it a casus belli.

Victorian caution, however, demanded that there
should be still no mention of an engagement until the
Princess had been confirmed — her confirmation had been
fixed for her seventeenth birthday. In point of fact, it
took place six months earlier, on March 20, 1856, and
a month later, on April 29, after the conclusion of the
Crimean War, the -happy news was broadcast that the
wedding of the Prince Frederick William and the Princess
Royal would shortly take place.

That spring, Prince Frederick, or " Fritz ", as he was
known in the family circle, paid a long visit to his fiancee.
" The only impression he gave one at that time ", noted
an acute observer, " was that of a good-humoured, taking

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1856 lieutenant, with large hands and feet, but not in the least
clever." l Queen Victoria herself played the part of the
unsleeping chaperon, a proceeding which, as she wrote
to King Leopold, she found very boring, but endured it
because she thought it was her duty ! " Every spare
moment Vicky has ", she wrote on June 3, " (and I
have, for I must chaperon this loving couple, which takes
so much of my precious time) is devoted to her bride-
groom who is so much in love that, even if he is out
driving or walking with her, he is not satisfied, and says
he has not seen her, unless he can have her for an hour
to himself, when I am naturally bound to be acting as
chaperon."

At this period, Prussia, having well recovered from
the Napoleonic wars and steadily increasing in pres-
tige and commerce, was beginning to feel a little of that
acute national pride which was to have such a stimulating
effect after the Danish and French wars of the follow-
ing decades, and the suggestion was made that the heir
to the throne of the Hohenzollerns should be married in
Berlin. Quick as the rapier thrust came the letter from
Queen Victoria to Lord Clarendon (October 25, 1857) :

1857 It would be well if Lord Clarendon would tell Lord Bloomfield
[the British Minister in Berlin] not to entertain the possibility of
such a question as the Princess Royal's marriage taking place at
Berlin. The Queen never could consent to it, both for public and
private reasons, and the assumption of its being too much for a
Prince Royal of Prussia to come over to marry the Princess Royal
of Great Britain in England is too absurd, to say the least. The
Queen must say that there never was even the shadow of a doubt on
Prince Frederick William's part, as to where the marriage should
take place, and she suspects this to be mere gossip of the Berlinois.
. . . Whatever may be the usual practice of Prussian Princes — it is

1 Mary Ponson&y, edited by Magdalen Ponsonby, p. 241.

Jkt J

•from a Utiioyraph /W'/wVW ui

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

not every day that one marries the eldest daughter of the Queen of 1857
England. The question therefore must be considered as settled and
closed.

Against that verdict there was no appeal, and three
months later, on January 25, 1858, in the Chapel Royal, at 1858
St. James's Palace, the Princess Royal, who, as Sarah,
Lady Lyttelton, records, displayed " not a bit of bridal
missiness and flutter ", was married to Prince Frederick
William of Prussia, and thus became the probable co-
partner of the Prussian throne.

The honeymoon was but a brief two days at Windsor,
as was then the Royal custom. Thirty-six years later the
Princess recalled to Bishop Boyd Carpenter her feelings
at that time. " I remember ", she said, as she looked
around the red brocade drawing-room which overlooks
the Long Walk, " how we sat here — two young innocent
things — almost too shy to talk to one another." x

Eight days after the wedding Prince and Princess
Frederick of Prussia left London for their new home in
Berlin. The parting with her father and mother was an
emotional trial for the Princess, who was bitterly sorry to
leave England, " She has had ", wrote Queen Victoria to
the King of the Belgians on January 12, 1858, " ever since
January 1857, a succession of emotions and leave-takings
— most trying to anyone, but particularly to so young a
girl with such very powerful feelings." A month later
(February 9) she wrote : " The separation was awful and
the poor child was quite brokenhearted at parting from
her dearest beloved papa, whom she idolises ". The Prince
Consort 2 was no less affected. He was losing not only

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir, p. 68.

2 Prince Albert had been created Prince Consort on June 25,
1857.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1858 his favourite child, but also an adoring pupil and com-
panion. There had been an ever-growing intellectual sym-
pathy between them, and the father had communicated
to the daughter not only his outlook on life, but also
his political liberalism — a gift which was likely to prove
somewhat awkward to the Princess in future years.

On arrival in Berlin, the youth of the Princess, her
intelligence and charm, the romantic associations of her
courtship, combined with the undoubted popularity of her
husband, all found a popular utterance in the vociferous
public welcome which greeted her wherever she went
during those ensuing weeks. Her manner was singularly
quiet and self-possessed, and she seemed to be able to find
the right word to say to everyone and to be anxious to
appreciate her husband's country. Even so, feeling ran so
high in Prussian society against the " English " marriage,
and especially at the court, that Lord and Lady Bloom-
field, the then English Minister and his wife, in order to
give no cause of offence to the Prussian King and Queen,
made a point of avoiding the newly wedded Princess.

A month or two later, Bismarck, then Prussian
delegate to the Diet at Frankfort, wrote prophetically to
General von Gerlach (April 8, 1858) :

You ask me in your letter what I think of the English marriage.
I must separate the two words to give you my opinion. The
" English " in it does not please me, the " marriage " may be quite
good, for the Princess has the reputation of a lady of brain and
heart. If the Princess can leave the Englishwoman at home and
become a Prussian, then she may be a blessing to the country. If
our future Queen on the Prussian throne remains the least bit
English, then I see our Court surrounded by English influence,
and yet us, and the many other future sons-in-law of her gracious
Majesty, receiving no notice in England save when the Opposition
in Parliament runs down our Royal family and country. On the
10

BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND MARRIAGE

other hand, with us, British influence will find a fruitful soil in the 1858
noted admiration of the German " Michael " for lords and guineas,
in the Anglomania of papers, sportsmen, country gentlemen, etc.
Every Berliner feels exalted when a real English jockey from Hart
or Lichtwald speaks to him and gives him an opportunity of break-
ing the Queen's English on a wheel What will it be like when the
first lady in the land is an Englishwoman ? x

Walburga, Countess von Hohenthal, who became one
of the Princess's ladies-in-waiting, and who later married
Sir Augustus Paget, British Ambassador in Rome and
Vienna, gives a charming picture in her book of reminis-
cences, Scenes and Memories, of her royal mistress as she
looked at the time of her marriage :

The Princess appeared extraordinarily young. All the childish
roundness still clung to her and made her look shorter than she
really was. She was dressed in a fashion long disused on the
continent, in a plum-coloured silk dress fastened at the back. Her
hair was drawn off her forehead. Her eyes were what struck me
most ; the iris was green like the sea on a sunny day, and the white
had a peculiar shimmer which gave them the fascination that,
together with a smile that showed her small and beautiful teeth,
bewitched those who approached her. The nose was unusually
small and turned up slightly, and the complexion was ruddy, per-
haps too much so for one thing, but it gave the idea of perfect
health and strength. The fault of the face lay in the squareness of
the lower features, and there was even a look of determination
about the chin, but the very gentle and almost timid manner pre-
vented one realising this at first. The voice was very delightful,
never going up to high tones, but lending a peculiar charm to the
slight foreign accent with which the Princess spoke both English
and German.

Already she possessed an intensely vivid and interest-
ing personality. The restraints of her position had not
stunted or crushed her intellectual or spiritual growth, nor
her natural enthusiasm and inexhaustible energy. On the

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir^ pp. 41-42.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1858 contrary, there were those who feared that her manifold
interests and activities would result in a dilettantism that
would be hard to cure. Such a development, however,
was not possible with such a husband — the kind, grave
Frederick whose influence upon her was to lead her to
the fields of philanthropy and the application of art to
industry.

Gradually the enthusiasm subsided — Prussia settled
down to its new Princess, and the Princess endeavoured
to settle down to Prussia. Here, however, came the first
suspicion of a cloud on the horizon. The aristocratic,
despotic institutions of Prussia were strangely opposed to
the democratic tradition which had sprung up in England
since the passing of the first Reform Bill in 1832, and it
was the hope of the youthful Princess that she might help
her husband to lead the way to democratic reforms on
the English lines.

CHAPTER II
EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

THE country that the Princess Frederick now adopted 1858
as her own was, in 1858, a second-rate European state.
Prussia was in fact not to be compared in power, wealth
or security with the Princess's native land. During the
Napoleonic wars, Prussia, a shadow of her former self
and pushed back behind the Elbe, suffered indignities at
the hands of the French which even now have not been
forgotten. But the close of the struggle with Fiance found
her regenerated and imbued with a strong spirit of nation-
ality and with her territories extended by the addition
of the grand-duchy of Posen, Swedish Pomerania, the
northern part of Saxony, the duchies of Westphalia and
Berg and the Rhine country between Aachen and Mainz.
Even then Prussia had a population of only about seven-
teen millions.

The first step towards German unity was taken a
few years later, when Prussia instituted the Zollverein
or Customs Union, to which by 1842 all the Ger-
manic States except Mecklenburg, Hanover and Austria
acceded. With this statesmanlike step Prussian influence
increased enormously and Frederick William IV., who
ascended the throne in 1840, made Berlin a centre of
learning and natural science. His extravagant views on
the subject of royal powers led, however, to the revolu-
tionary movement in 1848 and to the preparation of a

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1858 new constitution, which endeavoured to combine the
French prefect system with Prussian mediaevalism.

Prussia was now fast becoming a " Prussianised " state
— whereas England had been becoming more and more
liberal and progressive. Further, Germany, as the term
was then understood, included an extraordinary number
of petty and impotent principalities, dukedoms and other
states, each with its ruling family, and for the most part
as poor as they were proud. On the borders of Prussia
and Denmark were two duchies which were proving an
ever-growing source of friction. These two duchies of
Schleswig and Holstein had for centuries been deemed
indivisible, yet the King of Denmark was Duke of
Schleswig and of Holstein, while the population was
largely German, and Holstein was a member of the Ger-
man Federation. Efforts to incorporate these provinces
in Denmark led to a revolution in which Prussia success-
fully took the side of the insurgents, but the result was
merely the seven months' truce of Malmo which remained
unratified by the parliament of Frankfort.

Thus at the time of the Princess RoyaPs marriage,
there were three outstanding questions of importance in
Prussia ; the first was the leadership of the Germanic
states, the second was the question as to whether Prussia
was to remain stationary or to advance along liberal lines
similar to those which England had adopted, and the
third was the future of the duchies of Schleswig and Hol-
stein. From the outset it was evident that with regard to
the second question the influence of the Princess would
be on the side of the progressive liberal elements.

The German court, of which the Princess was now a
leading member, was singularly unlike the English court,
which at this period was cheerful and young. Not yet

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

was Queen Victoria overwhelmed by the loss of her 1858
husband that plunged the court into a forty years' gloom ;
it was a happy eager court, high-toned and bright. By
contrast, the Prussian court was formal, stiff, and boring:
the life was monotonous, the palaces gloomy and uncom-
fortable and the ceremonies interminable. The honest
and sagacious Regent of Prussia, known to history as
William L, had begun to feel that he was getting old, and
that feeling echoed through the court. In his consort,
however, then known as the Princess (Augusta) of
Prussia, the Princess Frederick had for many years a true
friend and ally, who belonged, in an intellectual sense, to
the eighteenth rather than the nineteenth century. Prin-
cess Augusta * knew French as well as she knew German,
and among her intimates were many Catholics. As a
young woman she was full of heart and warmth of feeling,
but she had soon learnt that which her daughter-in-law
never entirely succeeded in learning, that circumspection
and prudence were essential at the Prussian court, and
she took no great part in the affairs of state.

During the Crimean War, when the whole of the
Prussian court was pro-Russian, Princess Augusta had
been pro-English — a fact which naturally endeared her
to Queen Victoria, but which had made her Prussian
relatives suspicious and angry. When the Princess
Frederick arrived in Berlin as the bride of the King of
Prussia's heir-presumptive, the Crimean War was already
being forgotten, and the joyous simplicity and youthful
charm of the Princess silenced criticism, at any rate for a
time.

The Princess Frederick spent her first winter in Berlin

1 The fact that Jules Laforgue, the French poet, was appointed
reader to her shows that she had literary tastes.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1858 in the Old Schloss, which had not been lived in for a
considerable time, and was singularly below the Victorian
standard of living, hygiene and comfort. The young
couple were allotted a suite of ornate but very dark and
gloomy rooms ; the Princess, who had always been en-
couraged to turn her quick mind to practical matters, and
who delighted in creating and making, found her plans
for improvement blocked at every turn owing to the fact
that nothing could be done in the Old Schloss — not even
a bathroom added — without the direct permission of the
insane King.

Not only did the Princess feel uncomfortable in these
gloomy and haunted chambers, but she felt " cribbed,
cabined and confined " in the narrow etiquette of the
Prussian court At " home ", as she soon very unwisely
began to speak of England, she had been used to say
everything she thought from childhood upwards, sure of
not being misunderstood, and her habitual honesty and
frankness now proved a point of censure to her critical
German relatives. Unfortunately this difficulty of re-
straining her English feelings did not become easier with
the passage of years. Small things got on her nerves ;
German boots, the want of baths, the thin silver plate
and the amount of boring etiquette. Although wishing
to love her husband's country and to overcome her pre-
dilections, she always kept her love for England. In a
letter from Potsdam in 1871, she says :

You cannot think how dull and melancholy and queer I feel
away from you all and from beloved England ! Each time I get
there I feel my attachment to that precious bit of earth grow
stronger and stronger. . . . Going away and returning here always
causes a commotion in my feelings which wants a little time and
reasoning to one's self to get over.1

1 Mary Ponsonby, p. 242.
16

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

Above all she could not understand the rigid Prussianism 1858
of the Prussian reactionary party, and quite early it was
noted that " the very approach of a Tory or a reactionary
seemed to freeze her up ".

A few months later, the Prince and Princess set up a
modest establishment more on English lines at the Castle
of Babelsberg, and here the Princess was much happier in
her surroundings. The little Castle, seated on the side
of a wooded hill, about three miles from Potsdam,
overlooked a fine expanse of water, and commanded a
charming view of the surrounding country. " Everything
there ", wrote Queen Victoria on her first visit, " is very
small, a Gothic bijou, full of furniture, and flowers
(creepers), which they arrange very prettily round screens,
and lamps and pictures. There are many irregular turrets
and towers and steps." *

Early in June Prince Albert visited his daughter and
son-in-law at Babelsberg, and wrote to Queen Victoria :
" The relation between the young people is all that can
be desired. I have had long talks with them both, singly
and together, which gave me the greatest satisfaction/'

Two months later, Queen Victoria and the Prince
Consort paid a visit of some length to their daughter.
The Queen herself described the visit as " quite private
and unofficial", but she was accompanied by Lord
Malmesbury, the Foreign Secretary in Lord Derby's
newly formed ministry, and by Lord Clarendon, his pre-
decessor, and Lord Granville, who had been President
of the Council in Palmerston's government. Queen Vic-
toria was delighted to meet the gigantic Field-Marshal
Wrangel, then seventy-six years of age, who had actually
carried the colours of his regiment at Leipzig in 1814,

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir, pp. 91-92.

c 17

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

and had, in 1848, as commandant of the troops, dissolved
the Berlin assembly by force. " He was ", wrote Queen
Victoria, " full of Vicky and the marriage, and said she
was an angel."

On November 20, 1858, the Prince and Princess
Frederick moved from Babelsberg into the palace in
Unter den Linden, which became their Berlin residence.
The Princess Frederick was delighted with her new home,
but, as in the case of the Old Schloss, the palace required
to be brought up to modern standards of comfort, and it
was still difficult to get any alterations approved by the
old and moody King, who refused one day what he
had promised the day before. At last assent was obtained
to those alterations which were absolutely urgent, and
the Princess spent many happy days in rearranging her
new home.

These first years at the Prussian court were spent in
the calm routine of home with the periodical public
activities that took up such a large proportion of her time.
Even manoeuvres, where she appeared on horseback, were
within her function, and in November 1858 the Duchess
of Manchester, herself an Hanoverian by birth, and who
afterwards married the Duke of Devonshire, wrote happily
from Hanover to Queen Victoria :

Though Your Majesty has only very lately seen the Princess
Royal, I cannot refrain from addressing Your Majesty, as I am sure
Your Majesty will be pleased to hear how well Her Royal Highness
was looking during the manoeuvres on the Rhine and how much
she seems to be beloved not only by all those who know her, but
also by those who have only seen and heard of her — the English
could not help feeling proud of the way the Princess Royal was
spoken of and the high esteem she is held in. For one so young it
is a most flattering position, and certainly as the Princess's charm
of manner and her kind unaffected words, had in that short time
18

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

won her the "hearts of all the officers and strangers present, one is 1858
not astonished at the praise the Prussians themselves bestow on
Her Royal Highness. The Royal Family is large and their opinions
politically and socially sometimes so different that it must have
been very difficult indeed at first for the Princess Royal, and people
therefore cannot praise enough the high principles, great discretion,
and judgment and cleverness Her Royal Highness has invariably
displayed.

Your Majesty would have been amused to hear General "Wrangel
tell, at the top of his voice, how delighted the soldiers were to see
the Princess on horseback and the interest she showed for them —
what pleased them especially was to see Her Royal Highness ride
without a veil. Such an odd thing in soldiers to remark. The King
of Prussia is looking very well, but the Queen, I thought, very
much altered. Her Majesty looks very pale and tired and has such
a painful drawn look about the mouth. . . . Their Majesties* kind-
ness was very great and the Duke told me of the extreme hospitality
with which they were entertained. Everyone high and low were
rivalling each other in civility and friendship towards the strangers,
especially the English, and one really felt quite ashamed of those
wanton attacks the Times always makes on Prussia and which are
read and copied into all the Prussian papers. . . .

A happy domestic event occurred on January 27, 1859
1859, when a son and heir was born to the Prince and
Princess Frederick. Great were the rejoicings, for in the
normal run of events the boy would become King of
Prussia in succession to his grand-uncle, grandfather and
father.

For a time, however, mother and child were in
imminent danger, and, as Prince Albert wrote to King
Leopold, " Poor Fritz and the Prince and Princess (of
Prussia) must have undergone terrible anxiety, as they
had no hope of the birth of a living child ". It was not
until the third day that it was perceived that the child's
left arm was paralysed, the shoulder-socket injured and
the surrounding muscles severely bruised. Medical know-

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1859 ledge was in so elementary a state then that no doctor
would venture to attempt the readjustment of the limb,
which remained feeble and almost, if not entirely, useless.1
On this child, her first-born, the Princess lavished all her
maternal care, and a fortnight later (February 12) the
Princess wrote to her mother :

I use dear Countess Bliicher's hand, by Wegner's 2 permission,
to answer your dear letter just arrived, and I cannot describe my
pleasure at being again able in a more direct way to convey my
thoughts to you, and to be able at last to thank you for all your
tenderness and all your love shown to me so unceasingly during
this time. How deeply it has touched, cheered and delighted me,
and how very grateful I feel to you and papa, I need not say. Your
letters have been the greatest comfort to me, and I thank you for
them a thousand times. How much I thought of you on the loth,
and wished to have been able to write to you. Fritz conveyed all
my wishes I hope. . . .

I fear I may not dictate any more today, dear Mama, and so I
will only say that your little grandson is very well.

A further reference to her " exceedingly lively " son
occurs in the letter written by the Princess Frederick to
Queen Victoria on February 28 :

Your grandson [she wrote] is exceedingly lively and when
awake will not be satisfied unless kept dancing about continually.
He scratches his face and tears his caps and makes every sort of
extraordinary little noise. I am so thankful, so happy, he is a boy.
I longed for one more than I can describe, my whole heart was set
upon a boy and therefore I did not expect one. I cannot say I think
him like anyone at present, although now and then he reminds me
of Bertie and of Leopold, which I fear you won't like. I feel very
proud of him and very proud of being a Mama. . . ,

The infant prince was christened a week later. Queen
Victoria, as she wrote to her " Dearest Uncle ", the King

1 Lucien von Balihausen, JSismarcks Erinnerungen, p. 74.

2 One of the German doctors in attendance on the Princess.
20

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

of the Belgians, was almost heartbroken at not being able 1859
to witness the christening of her first grandchild, and
railed against the " stupid law in Prussia " which was " so
particular in having the child christened so soon ". On
the day of the christening, March 5, Lady Bloomfield,wife
of the British Minister in Berlin, wrote to Queen Victoria :

I am this instant returned from the christening of His Royal
Highness Frederick William Victor Albert, and lose no time in
writing a few lines to tell Your Majesty that everything went off
as well as possible. I had a very good place close to the door of the
Chapel (which only contained the members of the Royal Family)
and the dear baby looked so pretty and never cried at all. It seemed
very much taken up with the Prince Regent's Orders and kept
moving its little hands as if it wanted to play with them. The dis-
course which was pronounced by Hof Prediger Straus was not too
long and very well adapted to the occasion, and I was so happy at
last after the ceremony to be allowed to kiss the dear Princess's
hand. I have been so longing to see her, if only for a minute. Her
Royal Highness looks well, and not thin in the face, but she seemed
flushed and nervous, and her voice is still weak, so that I am quite
sure she still requires considerable care, and I only trust today's
fatigue will not have been too much for her. She was sitting close
to the baby's bassinet and I so wished your Majesty could have
been present. During the whole of this interesting time I have so
often felt how very trying it must be for Your Majesty to be absent,
but thank God all has prospered and I trust ere long Your Majesty
will have the happiness of seeing the dear Princess restored to
perfect health and strength. I have no doubt Her Royal Highness
will pick up much more rapidly as soon as she begins to go out. . . .

The birth of the Prince resulted in the family moving
to Neue Palais at Potsdam, where Prince Frederick had
been born, and which became for many years the happy
home of the Princess.

In summer of that year Prince and Princess Frederick
came to England to spend a holiday at Osborne with the
British royal family. The Princess's eldest brother, the

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1859 Prince of Wales, was at this time nearing his eighteenth
birthday, and opinion held that it was high time a suitable
princess were found for him. Princess Frederick was at
first of opinion that there did not exist in this world
anyone good enough to become her brother's wife, but
she changed her mind when the beauty and endear-
ing graces of Alexandra, daughter of Prince Christian
of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg,1 were
pressed by her own lady-in-waiting, Countess von
Hohenthal (Walburga, Lady Paget), and it was quickly
arranged that the Princess Frederick should meet Princess
Alexandra informally at Strelitz, and here in the palace
of a second cousin on both sides, the Grand Duchess of
Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a meeting followed.

The Princess Frederick declared herself to be "quite
enchanted " with " the most fascinating creature in the
world " 2 who, as she wrote to her mother, was bound to
succeed in the competition for her brother's hand.3 But
for the moment the project hung fire. All admitted the
right of the Prince to make his own choice, and the
Princess Frederick returned to Berlin with the conscious-
ness of having done what she could to further an ideal
match.

Among the Princess's friends in Germany at this
period was an Englishman, Robert Morier, who had
held various diplomatic appointments at German courts
and had acquired an unrivalled intimacy with German
politics. Prince Albert had formed a high opinion of his
character and abilities in 1858, and at the time of the
Princess's marriage had done everything in his power to

1 Later King Christian IX. of Denmark.

2 Walburga, Lady Paget, Embassies of other Days^ i. 328 seg.
8 Sir Sidney Lee, Life of King Edward V1L vol. i. p. 120.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

have Morier appointed an attache at the British Embassy 1859
at Berlin. Gifted with a rare power for pungency in ex-
pression, Morier's frankness quickly won the esteem of
the Princess.

Morier had another good friend in the Princess of
Prussia, the Princess Frederick's mother-in-law, and it
was at her wish, expressed to Lord Clarendon, that the
young man was sent to Berlin in order that he might be
of use to her son and daughter-in-law. Morier was also
on intimate terms with Ernest von Stockmar (son of the
redoubtable Baron Stockmar, the counsellor of the Prince
Consort), who at the same time was appointed private
secretary to the Princess.

Morier's appointment was the beginning of a lifelong
intimacy with Prince and Princess Frederick. He became
and remained one of their most trusted friends and
advisers, a fact which undoubtedly injured his diplo-
matic career. Probably because Morier had a remark-
ably strong and original personality, he at once aroused
jealousy, dislike and suspicion ; he was even said to in-
fluence unduly Prince Frederick through the Princess.
When, many years later, it was proposed that Sir Robert
Morier, as he had then become, should be appointed
Ambassador in Berlin, his name was the only one
which was absolutely vetoed by the then all-powerful
Bismarck.

In June 1859 the war between Austria and the allied
French and Sardinian armies broke out, and for the first
time the Princess Frederick saw her husband prepare for
war. The Prince Regent, while declaring the neutrality
of Prussia, cautiously ordered a mobilisation of the
Prussian army, and Major-General Prince Frederick
William went off to his command over the First Infantry

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1859 Division of Guards, Fortunately the rapid defeat of the
Austrians at Solferino brought the Peace of Villafranca
in July, and the Prussian army returned to its peace
footing. The defeat of Austria, however, raised anew the
question of German hegemony.

In the November of 1859 the Princess came again to
England with her husband. " Vicky ", as her father wrote
of her to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg, " has de-
veloped greatly of late and yet remains quite a child ! "
" She talked ", recorded her old governess, Sarah, Lady
Lyttelton, " much of her baby/' x

1 860 The year 1 860 added further happiness to the lot of the
Princess Frederick. In the July of that year her eldest
daughter, the Princess Charlotte, was born. Late in the
September Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were joined
at Coburg by the Princess Frederick, and it was on this
visit that Queen Victoria first saw her eldest grandchild.
Writing on September 25 she says :

Our darling grandchild was brought Such a little love! He
came walking in at Mrs. Hobbs's (his nurse's) hand, in a little white
dress with black bows, and was so good. He is a fine, fat child, with
a beautiful white soft skin, very fine shoulders and limbs, and a very
dear face, like Vicky and Fritz, and also Louise of Baden. He has
Fritz's eyes and Vicky's mouth, and very fair curly hair. We felt
so happy to see him at last! 2

This was the beginning of an enduring friendship
between grandmother and grandson, and in the letters of
Queen Victoria there is constant reference to her grand-
child i whom she calls " Dear little William ", " a darling
child ", and adds that he is a " dear little boy, is so
intelligent and pretty, so good and affectionate ".

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir \ p. 115.

2 Ibid. p. 123.
24

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

In modelling and arranging the nursery for her two 1860
children, the Princess Frederick, as was perhaps to be
expected, preferred to follow English rather than German
lines and ideas — a proceeding that was viewed with dis-
approval by those ardent innovation-resisting Prussians
who constituted the conservative party. The dislike of
the high-born Prussian for anything that was English was
perhaps only equalled by the dislike of a certain section of
the English press for anything that was Prussian. The
Prince Consort, who dreamt of a united Germany under
Prussian leadership which should guarantee the peace of
the world with England, was seriously disturbed by the
attacks which The Times was constantly making on Prussia
and everything Prussian. An article in the Saturday
Review which he recommended to his daughter to read,
said that " The only reason The Times ever gives for its
dislike of Prussia, is that the Prussian and English courts
are connected by personal ties, and that British independ-
ence demands that everything proceeding from the Court
should be watched with the most jealous suspicion". The
same argument could have been applied to Prussian
opinion. Naturally this animosity materially affected the
position of the Princess in Prussia, and she gradually
found herself being disliked more and more for two
reasons — the first that she was English and could not
forget it, and the second that she loved English political
and sanitary ideas.

Meanwhile, the Prince Consort, in spite of many poli-
tical and other anxieties and a sharp attack of illness, con-
tinued to instruct his daughter in the art of government,
and many and long were the letters he addressed to his
still adoring pupil and daughter. These letters, with their
liberal ideas, perhaps helped to make the position of the

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1860 Princess more difficult. The ideal woman in Prussia was
then one who, conscious of her intellectual inferiority,
contented herself with " Kiiche, Kinderstube, Kranken-
stube und Kirche — und sonst nichts". If this view ob-
tained with regard to women in private stations, much
more was it considered to be the duty of princesses
of the Royal House to abstain from any active interest
in public affairs. It is strange that the Prince Consort,
with his knowledge of Prussian traditions, did not appre-
ciate this. It is possible that he thought his daughter to be
freed by her exceptional ability from the ordinary restric-
tions and limitations of her rank. Still more, perhaps, he
was anxious to give his son-in-law, in the troublous times
that seemed impending, an helpmeet who could influence
him in the right Coburgian direction. Whatever may have
been the reason, the Prince certainly continued to the end
of his life to cultivate his daughter's knowledge and grasp
of public affairs.

The Princess replied to these learned fatherly epistles
at equal length. In the December of 1860 the Prince
Consort received from Berlin a long and able memor-
andum upon the advantages of a law of ministerial re-
sponsibility, drafted so as to remove the apprehensions
entertained in high quarters at the Prussian court as to
the expediency of such a measure. This memorandum
was the work of the Princess Frederick, and it is easy to
imagine what a storm of indignation would have arisen
in Prussia if by any accident or indiscretion the know-
ledge that the Princess had written such a paper had
leaked out.1

The preceding months had altered in very few respects
the position of the Princess, but an event was now draw-

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir ', p. 127.
26

i860

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

ing near that was to put her in a position of greater 1861
influence. By the end of 1860 it was apparent that
the insane King Frederick William IV. of Prussia was
seriously ill, and with the turn of the year there was a
sudden and critical change for the worse, his death follow-
ing quickly. The event moved the Princess Frederick
profoundly, as it was really her first sight of death.
After a broken night and day of watching by the bedside
of the King, the Princess was awakened at one o'clock on
the morning of January 2, but before she could arrive at
the King's chamber life had flown. That day the Princess
wrote from Potsdam to Queen Victoria :

At last I can find a moment for myself to sit down and collect
my thoughts and to write to you an account of these two last
dreadful days ! My head is in such a state, I do not know where I
am hardly — whether I am in a dream or awake, what is yesterday
and what today ! What we have so long expected has come at last !
All the confusion, busde, excitement, noise, etc., is all swallowed
up in the one thought for me.

I have seen death for the first time ! It has made an impression
upon me that I shall never never forget as long as I live — and I feel
so ill, so confused and upset by all that I have gone through in the
last forty-eight hours that you must forgive me if I write incoher-
ently and unclearly ! But to go back to Monday evening (it seems
to me a year now). At a quarter to eight in the evening of Monday
the 31 st, I took dear darling Affie 1 to the railway station and took
leave of him with a heavy heart. You know I love that dear boy
distractedly — and that nothing could have given me more pleasure
than his dear long-wished-for visit. At 9 o'clock Fritz and I went
to tea at the Prince Regent's, we four were alone together. The
Princess (of Prussia) was rather low and unwell, the Prince low
spirited and I thinking of nothing but Affie and of how dear he is —
while we were sitting at tea we received bad news from Sans Souci,
but nothing to make us particularly uneasy. Fritz and I went home
and to bed — not being in a humour to sit up till 12. About half

1 Prince Alfred, later Duke of Edinburgh.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1861 past one we heard a knock at the door and my wardrobe maid
brought In a telegram saying the King was given up, and a note
from the Prince Regent, saying he was going immediately. We
got up in the greatest hurry and dressed I hardly know how. I
put on just what I found and had not time to do my hair or any-
thing. After we had hurried on our clothes we went down stairs
and out — for there was no time to get a carriage, or a Footman
or anything — it was a splendid night, but 12 degrees of cold
(Re*aumur). I thought I was in a dream, finding myself alone in
the street with Fritz at 2 o'clock at night. We went to the Prince
Regent's and then with them in their carriages to the railway
station. We four all alone in the train. We arrived at Sans Souci
and went directly into the room where the King lay — the stillness
of death was in the room — only the light of the fire and of a dim
lamp. We approached the bed and stood there at the foot of it, not
daring to look at one another, or to say a word. The Queen was
sitting in an arm chair at the head of the bed, her arm underneath
the King's head, and her head on the same pillow on which he
lay — with her other hand she continually wiped the perspiration
from his forehead. You might have heard a pin drop — no sound
was heard, but the crackling of the fire and the death rattle — that
dreadful sound which goes to one's heart and which tells plainly
that life is ebbing. This rattling in the throat lasted about an hour
longer and then the King lay motionless — the Doctors bent their
heads low to hear whether he still breathed and we stood, not even
daring to sit down, watching the death struggle. Every now and
then the King breathed very fast and loud, but never unclosed his
eyes — he was very red in the face and the cold perspiration pour-
ing from his forehead. I never spent such an awful time, and to
see the poor Queen sitting there quite rent my heart — 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
struck and we were still standing there — one member of the
Royal Family came in after the other and remained motionless
in the room, sobs only breaking the stillness. Oh it is dreadful
to see a person die, all the thoughts and feelings that crowded
on my mind in those hours I cannot describe; they impressed
me more than anything in my whole past lifetime! the light
of the morning dawned and the lamps were taken away. Oh
how sad for the first morning in the year ! We all went into the
next room, for I assure you, anxiety, watching, standing and cry-

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

ing had quite worn us out. The Princess fell asleep on a chair, 1861
I on a sofa, and the rest walked up and down the room, asking
one another " How long will it last ? " Towards the middle of the
day Marianne and I went into the room alone, as we wished to
stay there, we came up and kissed the Queen's hand and knelt
down and kissed the King's — it was quite warm still 1 We stood
about and waited till 5 o'clock and then had some dinner, and I
felt so sick and faint and unwell, that Fritz sent me here to bed.
At i o'clock this morning I got up and dressed and heard that the
King had not many minutes more to live, but by the time I had
got the carriage I heard all was over. I drove to Sans Souci and
saw the King and Queen. May God bless and preserve them and
may theirs be a long and happy and blessed reign 1 Then I went
into the room where the King lay, and I could hardly bring my-
self to go away again. There was so much of comfort in looking
there at that quiet peaceful form at rest at last after all he had
suffered — gone home at last from this world of suffering — so
peaceful and quiet he looked — like a sleeping child — every moment
I expected to see him move or breathe — his mouth and eyes closed
and such a sweet and happy expression — both his hands were on
the coverlet. I kissed them both for the last time — they were
quite cold then. Fritz and I stood looking at him for some time.
I could hardly bring myself to believe that this was really death,
that which I had so often shuddered at and felt afraid of— there
was nothing there dreadful or appalling — only a heavenly calm
and peace. I felt it did me so much good and was such a comfort.
" Death where is thy sting, grave where is thy Victory?" He was
a just and good man and had a heart overflowing with love and
kindness, and he has gone to his rest after a long trial which he
bore with so much patience I I am not afraid of death now, and
when I feel inclined to be so, I shall think of that solemn and
comforting sight, and that death is only a change for the better.
We went home and to bed and this morning went there at 10. I
sat some time with the poor Queen, who is so calm and resigned
and touching in her grief. She does not cry, but she looks heart-
broken. She said to me, " I am no longer of any use in this world.
I have no longer any vocation, any duties to perform, and only
lived for him." Then she was so kind to me, kinder than she has
ever been yet, and said I was like her own child and a comfort to

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1861 her ! I saw the corpse again this morning, he is unaltered, only
changed in colour and the hands are stiffened. The funeral will
be on Saturday, the King will He in State till then, his wish was
to be buried in Friedens Kirche before the Altar — and his heart
at Charlottenburg in the Mausoleum.

When it is remembered that the writer of this letter
was only twenty, its poignancy, and the simple, unstudied
vividness of the scene in the death-chamber are re-
markable. But the letter also shows the nobleness of
the Princess's outlook on life. Her sympathy with the
bereaved Queen Elizabeth was profound, and their grief
brought them together as perhaps nothing else could have
done.

Two months later (March 1861) the unexpected death
of the Duchess of Kent deprived the Princess of a
grandmother with whom were associated many of the
happy events of her childhood and girlhood. On receiv-
ing the sudden news, the Princess started at once for
England, not entirely with the approval of her father-in-
law. The Prince Consort, who in this matter of his
daughter's relations to her father-in-law always showed
exceptional tact, wrote and thanked the King : " Her stay
here has been a great comfort and delight to us in our
sorrow and bereavement, and we are truly grateful for
it".1

Seven months later the new King of Prussia, William
I., and his consort, Queen Augusta, were crowned at
Konigsberg with fitting ceremonial. The following day
(October 19, 1861) the Crown Princess (as the Princess
Frederick now became), in a letter to her mother, gave
a remarkably vivid and picturesque account of the cere-
mony, from which humour was not absent. The fact that

1 The Empress Frederick: A Memoir, p. 138.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

the day chosen was her husband's birthday gave her 1861
great pleasure.

I should like [she wrote] to be able to describe yesterday's
ceremony to you, but I cannot find words to tell you how fine
and how touching it was, it really was a magnificent sight. The
King looked so very handsome and so noble with the crown on
— it seemed to suit him so exactly. The Queen too looked beautiful
and did all she had to do with such perfect grace, and looked so
vornehm. . . . The moment when the King put the crown on the
Queen's head was so touching that I think there was hardly a dry
eye in the church. The Schloss Hof was the finest, I thought — five
bands playing " God save the Queen ", banners waving in all
directions, cheers so loud that they quite drowned the sound of
the music, and the procession moving slowly on, the sky without
a cloud, and all the uniforms, and ladies* diamonds glittering in
the bright sunlight. I shall never forget it all, it was so very fine.

Dearest Fritz's birthday being chosen for the day made me very
happy — he was in a great state of emotion and excitement as you
can imagine, as we all were. . . .

The coup d3 'ceil was really beautiful, the Chapel is in itself lovely,
with a great deal of gold about it, and all hung with red velvet
and gold — the carpet, altar, throne and canopies the same — the
Knights of the Black Eagle with red velvet cloaks, the Queen's
four young ladies all alike in white and gold, the two Palastdamen
in crimson velvet and gold, and the Oberhofmeister in gold and
white brocade with green velvet, Marianne and Addy in red and
gold and red and silver. I in gold with ermine and white satin,
my ladies one in blue velvet, the other in red velvet, and Countess
Schulenburg together with the two other Oberhofmeisterinnen of
the other Princesses in violet velvet and gold. All these colours
together looked very beautiful, and the sun shone, or rather poured
in at the high windows and gave quite magic tinges. The music
was very fine and the chorals were sung so loud and strong that it
really quite moved one. The King was immensely cheered wherever
he appeared — also the Queen — and even I. ...

The King and Queen were most kind to me yesterday. The King
gave me a lock of his hair in a charming little locket, and, only think,
what will sound most extraordinary, absurd and incredible to your
ears, made me 2nd ChefcA the 2nd Regt. of Hussars. I laughed so

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1861 much because I really thought it was a joke — it seems so strange for
ladies, but the Regts. like particularly having ladies for their Chefs.
The Queen and the Queen Dowager have Regiments, but I believe
I am the first Princess on whom such an honour is conferred. . . .

Half Europe is here and one sees the funniest combinations in
the world — it is like a " happy family " 1 shut up in a cage. The
Italian Ambassador sat next Cardinal Geissel, and the French one
opposite the Archduke. The Grand Duke Nicholas is here — he
is so nice. Also the Crown Prince of Wurtemberg, Crown Prince
of Saxony, Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, Prince Charles of Hesse
(who nearly dies of fright and shyness amongst so many people),
Heinrich, Prince Elimar of Oldenburg, Prince Frederick of the
Netherlands and the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Weimar
and wish to be most particularly remembered to you and Papa.

The King and Queen are most kind to Lord Clarendon, and
make a marked difference between their cordiality to him and the
stiff etiquette with which the other Ambassadors are received. I
think he is pleased with what he sees. The King has given the
Queen the Order of the Black Eagle in diamonds. I write all these
details as you wish them, at the risk of their not interesting you,
besides my being, as you know, a very bad hand at descriptions. . . .

The State Dinner last night looked very well. We were waited on
by our Kammerherren and Pages — the King being waited on by the
Oberhofchargen, our ladies stood behind our chairs — after the first
two dishes are round, the King asks to drink, and that is the signal for
the ladies and gentlemen to leave the room and go to dinner, while
the Pages of Honour continue to serve the whole dinner, really
wonderfully well, poor boys — considering it is no easy task. . . .

Fritz would thank you for your dear letters himself, but he is
at the University where they have elected him " Rector Magnificus"
and he has to make a speech. We have all got our servants and
carriages and horses here — every day — 300 footmen in livery —
together with other servants in livery make 400. All the standards
and colours of the whole army are here and all the Colonels.
Altogether you cannot imagine what a crush and what a scramble
there is on every occasion. There was a man crushed to death in
the crowd the other day, which is quite dreadful. . . .

1 A " happy family " is a cage at a fair in which animals naturally
hostile to one another live apparently in peace and harmony.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

Lord Clarendon, who was the British Special Ambas- 1861
sador on the occasion, writing to Queen Victoria on the
day after the Coronation, observed that " the great feature
of the ceremony was the manner in which die Princess
Royal did homage to the King. Lord Clarendon is at a
loss for words to describe to your Majesty the exquisite
grace and the intense emotion with which her Royal
Highness gave effect to her feelings on the occasion.
Many an older as well as younger man than Lord Claren-
don, who had not his interest in the Princess Royal, were
quite as unable as himself to repress their emotion at
that which was so touching, because so unaffected and
sincere. . . . If", Lord Clarendon added, "his Majesty
had the mind, the judgment, and the foresight of the
Princess Royal, there would be nothing to fear, and the
example and influence of Prussia would soon be marvel-
lously developed. Lord Clarendon has had the honour
to hold a very long conversation with her Royal High-
ness, and has been more than ever astonished at the
statesmanlike and comprehensive views which she takes
of the policy of Prussia, both internal and foreign, and
of the duties of a constitutional King."

From Lord Clarendon's letter to Queen Victoria it
may be gathered that the Crown Princess was much
alarmed at the state of affairs in Berlin at this time. The
new King saw democracy and revolution in every symp-
tom of opposition to his will. His ministers were merely
clerks registering the royal decrees. As yet there was
no one from whom he sought advice, or indeed who
would have the moral courage to give it. He would
never accept the consequences of representative govern-
ment or allow it to be a reality, though at the same time
he would always religiously keep his word. Such was
D 33

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1861 Lord Clarendon's diagnosis of the situation, arrived at
after an audience of the Crown Princess.

The Princess celebrated her twenty-first birthday on
November 21, 1861, and in the letter which she received
from her father, almost the last which he was ever to
address to her, he wrote :

May your life, which has begun beautifully, expand still further
to the good of others and the contentment of your own mind!
True inward happiness is to be sought only in the internal con-
sciousness of effort systematically directed to good and useful ends.
Success indeed depends upon the blessing which the Most High
sees meet to vouchsafe to our endeavours. May this success not
fail you, and may your outward life leave you unhurt by the storms,
to which the sad heart so often looks forward with a shrinking
dread ! Without the basis of health it is impossible to rear anything
stable. Therefore see that you spare yourself now, so that at some
future time you will be able to do more.1

The Crown Princess had barely celebrated her twenty-
first birthday when she received from England the sad
news of the illness of her father, the Prince Consort
After a short visit to Cambridge the Prince contracted
typhoid, and within a few days he was dead. The Crown
Princess and her second brother, Alfred, who was then
serving at sea, were the only children absent from the
death-bed of their beloved father, whose loss the Princess
felt acutely, for he had been her guide, philosopher,
mentor and friend. It was he who had inculcated liberal
doctrines upon her, and who had been responsible for her
breadth of vision and delight in learning. The blow fell
with stunning effect on both mother and daughter —
indeed, it is hard to say which of the two felt more utterly
broken-hearted and desolate. Between the Princess and
her father there had been ties that were deeper and

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir 9 pp. 149-151.
34

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

stronger even than the natural affection of parent and i8<5i
daughter ; he had sedulously formed her mind and tastes,
and he had become the one counsellor to whom she
felt she could ever turn in any perplexity or trouble,
sure of his helpful understanding and sympathy. Very
soon after her marriage, in a letter to the Prince of
Wales, she dwelt on their father as the master and leader
ever to be respected : " You don't know ", she wrote,
"how one longs for a word from him when one is
distant."

Nor did the Princess, like many daughters, allow her
marriage to weaken this tie ; indeed, the thought of the
physical distance between them seemed to bring them, if
possible, spiritually nearer. For her mother, the Princess
felt the tenderest and most filial affection, writing to her
every day, sometimes twice a day, but though she and
her father only wrote to one another once a week, she
poured out to him all her varied interests in politics,
literature, science, art and philosophy. It would be diffi-
cult to find in history a more touching and beautiful
example of spiritual and intellectual communion between
father and daughter.

The shock of her grief seemed to strengthen more
closely the ties which bound her to the land of her birth
and of her father's adoption — an attitude which provoked
a good deal of criticism in Berlin. She went to England
as often as she could, which was as often as her father-
in-law could be induced to give his permission. Such
sympathy as the Crown Princess found in Berlin with her
father's liberal views came from those who were generally
termed " Coburgers ", such as the younger Stockmar,
Bunsen and other liberal Germans. The fact that they
were " Coburgers ", and not Prussians, discounted with

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1861 the King of Prussia and his minister any value their
influence might have had.

With the accession of William I. to the throne of
Prussia it must indeed have seemed to the Crown Princess
as if some of her own and her husband's hopes and aspira-
tions for a fuller and more useful public life were about
to be realised. Both were ardent admirers of English
constitutional government, and although here the Prince
often sought the opinion of his Princess, his actions were
determined by his own breadth of outlook and intellectual
gifts. He was nine years her elder, and his character and
views had been formed long before their marriage. Both
appreciated the characteristics of the other, each adding
to the other's store of knowledge, and the true descrip-
tion of their political relationship is that each was in-
fluenced by but neither dominated the other. In art and
domestic arrangements, however, the Princess was in her
own field, as was the Prince with regard to soldiering.

There were many who thought that a year or two
at most would be the total term of the new King's
sovereignty, for he was sixty-three years of age and him-
self had the illusion that his life's work was done. But
even if a year or two longer had concluded his allotted
span, one of his acts alone during that period would have
had its effect upon the whole history of Europe and have
prevented for the time any further progress of liberal
ideas. In 1862 there occurred a bitter dispute between
the newly crowned King and his parliament over his
resolve to spend an immense sum of money on the reform
of the army, and to extricate himself from his grave em-
barrassments the King summoned Count von Bismarck
from the German Embassy in Paris in September to
assume supreme power in Berlin as Minister-President

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

and Minister for Foreign Affairs. Bismarck defined the 1862
policy of his life when he inaugurated his long rule at
Berlin with a speech to the Prussian Reichstag on Septem-
ber 30 in which he declared : " It is not with speeches
or with parliamentary resolutions that the great questions
of the day are decided, as was mistakenly done in 1848
and 1849, but with blood and iron." For thirty-eight
years Bismarck was faithful to this principle of force as
the foundation of government, and the majority of his
fellow-countrymen whole-heartedly accepted his creed.

Naturally the Crown Prince and Princess regarded
this event with dismay, but they were disarmed by the
King's threat of abdication and by the opinion urged
by the younger Stockmar, who was secretary to the
Crown Princess, that they should not intervene in party
strife.

The new Minister-President was at this period still
under fifty years of age. In his character three dominant
traits could be noted — pride, fearlessness and secretive-
ness. Not yet had he acquired that cynical distrust of
men nor the fierceness depicted in his determined jaw and
angry brooding eyes, such as his later likenesses portray.
Taking a strong line with the parliamentary deputies and
the press, he rode rough-shod over opposition, dominat-
ing his enemies with unconstitutional severity. It was
inevitable that neither the Crown Prince nor the Crown
Princess, with her father's constitutional teachings deeply
ingrained in every fibre, could see eye to eye with this
ruthless protagonist of Prussianism, and from the first
there were clashes and skirmishes, covert and open hos-
tility. Bismarck regarded the Princess, as he regarded
all women, as a quantite negligealle in affairs of state,
while to the Princess, who had views much in advance

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1862 of her time, any form of autocratic government was
anathema.

Bismarck's own opinion of the Crown Princess is
given in his Reminiscences.

Even soon after her arrival in Germany [he notes], in February
1858, 1 became convinced, through members of the Royal House
and from my own observations, that the Princess was prejudiced
against me personally. The fact did not surprise me so much as the
form in which her prejudice against me had been expressed in the
narrow family circle — '* she did not trust me ". I was prepared for
antipathy on account of my alleged anti-English feelings and by
reason of my refusal to obey English influences ; but, from a con-
versation which I had with die Princess after the war of 1866, while
sitting next to her at table, I was obliged to conclude that she had
subsequently allowed herself to be influenced in her judgment of
my character by further-reaching calumnies.

I was ambitious, she said, in a half-jesting tone, to be a king or
at least a president of a republic. I replied in the same semi-jocular
tone that I was personally spoilt for a Republican ; that I had grown
up in the Royalist traditions of the family, and had need of a
monarchical institution for my earthly well-being ; I thanked God,
however, that I was not destined to live like a king, constantly on
show, but to be until death the king's faithful subject. I added that
no guarantee could, however, be given that this conviction of
mine would be universally inherited, and this not because Royalists
would give out, but because perhaps kings might. " Pour faire un
civet, il faut un lievre, et pour faire une monarchic, il faut un roi."
I could not answer for it that, in thus expressing myself, I was not
free from anxiety at the idea of a change in the occupancy of the
throne without a transference of the monarchical traditions to the
successor. But the Princess avoided every serious turn and kept up
the jocular tone, as amiable and entertaining as ever; she rather gave
me the impression that she wished to tease a political opponent.

During the first years of my ministry, I frequently remarked in
the course of similar conversations that the Princess took pleasure
in provoking my patriotic susceptibilities by playful criticism of
persons and matters.1

1 BismarcKs Reminiscences, vol. i. pp. 190-191.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

This passage, which undoubtedly reflects Bismarck's 1862
real feeling, gives a vivid picture of these two remarkable
personalities, each watchful and guarded like two expert
duellists who realise the skill of the other. Whatever
mistakes Bismarck may have made, he never underrated
the Crown Princess's ability.

This critical period in Prussian history made Berlin
anything but pleasant for those who refused to swallow
Bismarck's potent tonic, and the Crown Prince and Prin-
cess accepted an invitation from the Prince of Wales
to join him in a Mediterranean and Italian tour. From
Coburg the party made a leisurely journey through South
Germany and Switzerland to Marseilles where they em-
barked in the royal yacht Oslorne. Sicily, Tunis, Malta
and Naples were visited in turn. A few days9 stay in Rome
in mid-November completed the tour and they returned
to Berlin in December after an absence of three months.
The Crown Princess enjoyed this immensely, and its
greatest result was to lay the foundation of that deep
love for Italy and Italian art which became one of her
strongest characteristics.

It was towards the end of this tour that the Crown
Prince and Princess made a short stay in December at
Vienna. The American historian, John Lothrop Motley,
who was visiting Austria at the time, gives a charming
account of his interview with the Crown Princess, who
had wished to meet him : " She is rather petite, has a
fresh young face with pretty features, fine teeth, and a
frank and agreeable smile and an interested, earnest and
intelligent manner. Nothing could be simpler or more
natural than her style, which I should say was the per-
fection of good breeding."

Meanwhile a second son, Prince Henry, destined to

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 863 become Germany's sailor prince, had been born on August
14, i8623 to the Crown Prince and Princess.

It might have been expected that the Crown Princess's
growing family would have disarmed a little of that
hostility with which she was regarded by some elements
in Prussia. Strangely enough the enmity grew because
the arrival of the children, two of whom were boys,
naturally strengthened the position of the Princess, and
her opponents feared that these young Princes would be
brought up in English rather than Prussian ways.

Bismarck, now well in the saddle, soon made it
clear that he would not permit the Constitution of
1850 to stand in his way, and he persuaded William I.
to govern without parliament, and to agree to such an
interpretation of the Prussian Constitution as would
enable him to muzzle the press. To these autocratic
acts both the Crown Prince and Princess were opposed,
and decided to make it plain that they were not conniv-
ing at such a misinterpretation. The result was a severe
estrangement between the King and his son. On June 5,
1863, the Crown Prince wrote to his father, expressing
his views, and on the same day, while at Dantzig, during
a tour in the performance of his military duties, speak-
ing in public to the chief Burgomaster, von Winter, he
declared himself to be opposed to his father's policy.
King William at once wrote demanding a public re-
cantation, and threatened to deprive the Prince of his
dignities and position. The Crown Prince, in his reply
of June 7, declined to retract anything, offered to lay
down his command and other offices, and begged to be
allowed to retire with his family to some place where
he would be under no suspicion of interfering in politics.
The breach between father and son seemed to be com-
40

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

plete, and it was with feelings of bewilderment that the 1863
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria on June 8 :

I told you, on the 5th, that Fritz had written twice to the
King, once, warning him of the consequences that would ensue if
the constitution was falsely interpreted in order to take away the
liberty of the press. The King did it all the same, and answered
Fritz with a very angry letter. Fritz then senthis protestto Bismarck
on the 4th, saying he wished to have an answer immediately.
Bismarck has not answered.

Fritz wrote on the fth to the King, as I told you. On the same
day Mr. de Winter, the Oberburgermeister of Danzig, a great
friend of ours, a worthy and excellent man, as clever as liberal-
minded, told Fritz he would make him a speech at the Rathaus,
and begged Fritz to answer him.

I did all I could to induce Fritz to do so, knowing how necessary
it was that he should once express his sentiments openly and dis-
claim having any part in the last measures of the Government.
He did so accordingly in very mild and measured terms — you
will have no doubt seen it in the newspapers. To this the King
answered Fritz a furious letter, treating him quite like a little child ;
telling him instantly to retract in the newspapers the words he had
spoken at Danzig, charging him with disobedience, etc., and telling
him that if he said one other word of the kind he would instantly
recall him and take his place in the Army and the Council from him.

Fritz sat up till one last night, writing the answer, which
Captain von Luccadon has taken to Berlin this morning, and in
which Fritz says that he is almost brokenhearted at causing his
father so much pain, but that he could not retract the words spoken
to Winter at Danzig ; that he had always hoped the King's Govern-
ment would not act in a way which should force him to put
himself in direct opposition to the King ; but now it had come to
that, and he (Fritz) would stand by his opinions. He felt that
under such circumstances it would be impossible for him to retain
any office military or civil, and he laid both at the feet of the
King. As he felt that his presence must be disagreeable to the
King, he begged him to name a place, or allow us to select one,
where he could live in perfect retirement and not mix in politics.

What the upshot of this will be, heaven knows. Fritz has
done his duty and has nothing to reproach himself with. But he

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1863 is in a state of perfect misery, and in consequence not at all well.
I hope you will make his conduct known to your Ministers and
to all our friends in England. We feel dreadfully alone, having
not a soul from whom to ask advice. But Fritz's course of duty
is so plain and straightforward, that it requires no explaining or
advising.

How unhappy I am to see him so worried, I cannot say ; but
I shall stand by him as is my duty, and advise him to do his in
the face of all the Kings and Emperors of the whole world.

A year of silence and self-denial has brought Fritz no other
fruits than that of being considered weak and helpless. The
Conservatives fancy he is in Duncker's 1 hands, and that he dictates
his every step. The Liberals think he is not sincerely one of them,
and those few who do think it, fancy he has not the courage to
avow it. He has now given them an opportunity of judging of his
way of thinking, and consequently will now again be passive and
silent till better days come. The way in which the Government
behave, and the way in which they have treated Fritz, rouse my
every feeling of independence. Thank God I was bom in England,
where people are not slaves, and too good to allow themselves
to be treated as such.

I hope our nation here will soon prove that we come of the
same forefathers, and strive for their own lawful independence, to
which they have been too long callous.

Queen Victoria did as her daughter wished, and in-
formed one or two of her ministers as to what was hap-
pening in Prussia. Lord Russell was shown the Crown
Princess's letter by General Grey, who was Private Secre-
tary to the Queen. Lord Russell thought that " nothing
can be more judicious than the course the Crown Prince
has adopted — the hope of any good depends on his firm
perseverance in it. With the Crown Princess by his side
there seems no fear of his not being firm."

1 Professor Duncker, a Prussian deputy who had been attached
to the Crown Prince on King William's accession as a channel of
communication in state matters. Both the Crown Prince and
Princess trusted him implicitly.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

That was the English viewpoint. The Prussian view- 1863
point was that the Crown Prince and Princess had
meddled in matters outside their proper concern — and
they lost popularity accordingly. Intimations as to the
correspondence between the Crown Prince and King
William were published in The Times, then in the Gren%-
boten (through Gustav Freytag) and in the Suddeutsche
Zeitung (through Busch, at Freytag's instance). On June
21 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

The messenger has just arrived, bringing your dear letter, and
the one from General Grey; allow me to answer them both
together.

We are wellnigh worn out with mental fatigue, anxiety, excite-
ment of the most painful kind. I was ill all yesterday, and feel
still very confused! I send you all the papers that you may see
what Fritz has done, said and written! He has done all he could.
He has, for the first time in his life, taken up a position decidedly
in opposition to his father. His speech in Danzig was intended to
convey in a clear and unpveideutig way to his hearers, that he had
nothing to do with the unconstitutional acts of the Government —
that he was not even aware of their being in contemplation I The
effect produced on those fifty or sixty who heard it was exactly
the one desired, but I know there are many who will not agree.
The Conservatives are in a state of indignation and alarm! the
King very angry! We are in this critical position without a
secretary, without a single person to give advice, to write for us,
or to help us ; whatever we do one way or the other is abused.

After having read all these papers, you will understand that
Fritz can do no more than what he has done! My last letter will
explain much of what has happened. We are surrounded with
spies, who watch all we do, and most likely report all to Berlin, in
a sense to checkmate everything we do.

The Liberal papers are forbidden, so we do not even know
what is going on. Fritz's speech was much praised by newspapers
in Frankfort-on-the-Main. As for coming to you, dear Mama,
you are too kind to say so ; at present we can decide nothing, as
we have received no answer from the King ; our fate is not settled.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

18(33 If it becomes necessary for us to leave the country, I can hardly
say how grateful we shall be to be once again with you, in that
blessed country of peace and happiness !

Now good-bye, my dearest Mama, I kiss your hands. I am
sure you will think of me in all this trouble. I do not mind any
difficulties so long as they end well for Fritz ; indeed I enjoy a
pitched battle (when it comes to it) exceedingly. Fritz feels his
courage rise in every emergency ; only the thought of his father
makes him feel powerless. " Think if it wasyoar father," he says
to me, " would you like to disobey him and make him unhappy ? *'

In a postscript the Princess added :

. . . The King does not accept Fritz's resignation, and wishes
us to continue our journey, forbidding Fritz, however, to say
another word openly. We shall therefore carry out our plan of
travelling here (at Konigsberg) till the ist of July, when we shall
go to the Isle of Riigen. In August I hope to see you, dear
Mama, for a day or two; in September are the manceuvres and
a Statistical Congress, which Fritz is to open; therefore I fear
Scotland will be quite impossible. Oh dear! what a sad and
wretched time we have of it, and no help, no support, surrounded
with people determined to put an insurmountable barrier to all
we wish to do in a liberal sense, and tormenting the very life out of
one! Please send back the enclosed as soon as you can. As soon as
the rest of the papers are returned to us, Fritz will send them to you.

M. de Bismarck has not even answered Fritz's letter, and the
King has forbidden him to give it to the rest of the Ministers!

Bismarck believed that the publication of the letters
was due to the Princess, and Busch quotes a memoran-
dum, dated Gastein, August 2, probably dictated by
Bismarck, which expressed this view. " Either ", runs the
memorandum, " she has herself attained to definite views
of her own as to the form of government most advan-
tageous for Prussia ... or she has succumbed to the
concerted influences of the Anglo-Coburg combination.
However this may be, it is asserted that she has decided
upon a course of opposition to the present Government,
44

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

and has taken advantage of the Dantzig incident and the 1863
excitement to which it has given rise in the highest circles,
in order to bring her consort more and more into promin-
ence by these revelations, and to acquaint public opinion
with the Crown Prince's way of thinking. All this out of
anxiety for the future of her consort/' The memorandum
went on to state that the Crown Princess's most power-
ful supporter was Queen Augusta, who was extremely
anxious as to her own position towards the country.
" They have had a memorandum drawn up by President
Camphausen on the internal situation in Prussia, attacking
the present Government, which was laid before the King.
In a marginal note the King observes that the principles
therein recommended would lead to revolution. Meyer,
the Councillor of Embassy, is Augusta's instrument, and
it is beyond question that he is associated with the Anglo-
Coburg party. The participation of Professor Duncker 1
as also of Baron Stockmar, would appear to be less
certain." The memorandum is accompanied by com-
ments in Bismarck's handwriting, in which the views ex-
pressed by the Crown Prince are refuted point by point.
In the course of his criticism the writer says, inter alia :
" The pretension that a warning from his Royal Highness
should outweigh royal decisions, come to after serious
and careful consideration, attributes undue importance to
his own position and experience as compared to those
of his sovereign and father. No one could believe that
H.R.H. had any share in these acts of personal authority,
as everybody knows that the Prince has no vote in the
Ministry. . . ."2

1 As a matter of fact he was not concerned in it. See Haym's
work, Das Leben Max Dunckers, pp. 294, 295.
9 JSismarcky Busch, p. 289.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1863 A week later (June 30, 1863) the Crown Prince wrote
to Bismarck :

I see from your letter of the loth instant that at his Majesty's
commands you have omitted to communicate officially to the
Ministry of State my protest respecting the rescript, restricting the
liberty of the press, which I sent to you from Graudenz on the 8th
of June. I can easily understand that the opportunity of treating as
a personal matter an incident which, as you yourself have acknow-
ledged, might, in its consequences, acquire widespread significance,
was not unwelcome to you. It would serve no purpose for me to
insist upon that communication being made, as I am justified in
inferring from your own words that it will have been done un-
officially.

It is necessary for me, however, to speak plainly to you respect-
ing the alternative which you place before me, namely, to lighten or
render more difficult the task which the Ministry has undertaken. I
cannot lighten that task, as I find myself opposed to it in principle.
A loyal administration of the laws and of the Constitution, respect
and goodwill towards an easily led, intelligent and capable people
— these are the principles which, in my opinion, should guide every
Government in the treatment of the country. I cannot bring the
policy which finds expression in the ordinance of the ist of June
into harmony with these principles. It is true you seek to prove to
me the constitutional character of that rescript, and you assure me
that you and your colleagues remember your oath. I think, how-
ever, that the Government requires a stronger basis than very
dubious interpretations which do not appeal to the sound common
sense of the people. You yourself call attention to the circumstance
that even your opponents respect the honesty of your convictions.
I will not inquire into that assertion [" Not over courteous **, was
Bismarck's comment in pencil], but if you attach any importance
to the opinions of your opponents, the circumstance that the great
majority of the educated classes among our people deny the con-
stitutional character of the ordinance must necessarily awaken
scruples in your mind. . , . I will tell you what results I anticipate
from your policy. You will go on quibbling with the Constitution
until it loses all value in the eyes of the people. In that way you
will on the one hand arouse anarchical movements that go beyond
the bounds of the Constitution ; while on the other hand, whether

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

you intend it or not, you will pass from one venturesome interpreta- 1 863
tion to another until you are finally driven into an open breach of
the Constitution. [" Perhaps," was Bismarck's comment.] I regard
those who lead his Majesty the King, my most gracious father,
into such courses as the most dangerous advisers for Crown and
country. [" Youth is hasty with words," quoted Bismarck.]

To this letter the Crown Prince added the postscript :

Already before the ist of June of this year I but rarely made use
of my right to attend the sittings of the Ministry of State. From the
foregoing statement of my convictions you will understand my
requesting his Majesty the King to allow me to abstain altogether
from attending them at present. A continuous public and personal
manifestation of the differences between myself and the Ministry
[" Absalom! " was Bismarck's comment in pencil] would be in
keeping neither with my position nor my inclination. In every
other respect, however, I shall impose no restrictions upon the
expression of my views ; and the Ministry may rest assured that it
will depend upon themselves and their own future action whether,
in spite of my own strong reluctance, I find myself forced into
further public steps, when duty appears to call for them. [" Come
on! " writes Bismarck's undaunted pencil.]1

Between the Crown Prince and Bismarck there was
now marked hostility, and the Crown Princess naturally
sided with her husband in the quarrel. Three months later
the Crown Prince communicated to his father the tenor
of his letter to Bismarck, and on September 3 wrote to
Bismarck :

I have today communicated to his Majesty the views which I set
forth to you in my letters from Putbus, and which I begged you not
to submit to the King until I myself had done so. A decision which
will have serious consequences was yesterday taken in the Council.
I did not wish to reply to his Majesty in the presence of the Min-
isters. I have done so today, and have given expression to my mis-
givings— my serious misgivings — for the future. The King now
knows that I am a decided opponent of the Ministry.

1 Bismarck^ Busch, pp. 235-237.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1863 At the end of the letter Bismarck scribbled, apparently
as part of a draft reply :

I can only hope that your Royal Highness will one day find
servants as faithful as I am to your father. I do not intend to be of
the number.1

The Crown Princess had now been in Prussia five and
a half years, years that, although producing the little series
of pinpricks to which everyone is subject, had brought
her much happiness. This duel between her husband and
Bismarck was the first indication of open hostility. Both
the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess had been
actuated by the highest motives in their opposition to
King William: but Bismarck had won. There could not
be two supreme advisers, and the Crown Prince had been
dramatically bidden to stand aside. Neither he nor his
Princess forgot : nor did Bismarck, who long remembered
that here was an opponent who had dared to question his
decisions in the secret counsels of the King.

In the Prussian court henceforward there were two
main parties. At the head of the reactionary-all-for-
Prussia party was Bismarck with the King as his shield.
At the head of the liberal-minded " Anglo-Coburg "
party, as Bismarck scathingly referred to it, were the
Crown Prince of Prussia and his English-bom Princess.

Some of the Prussian dissatisfaction at the views of
the Crown Prince and Princess was evinced when, in
the following month the Crown Prince, accompanied by
his wife, went on a long tour of military inspections in
Prussia and Pomerania. In some of the towns they visited
en route the municipal authorities ostentatiously refrained
from celebrating the occasion ; and it was very evident
that the official attitude in Prussia was reflecting some

1 Bismarck, Busch, p. 238.

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

wish from a more influential quarter. The result was that 1863
in September 1863 there followed a long visit to the
English court which lasted until December. The Princess
was at home — in England — and tongues began to wag at
the incomprehensible preference of the Prussian Crown
Princess for a land other than that she had adopted.
Meanwhile Queen Victoria had visited Coburg and had
had long conversations with Robert Morier, the Crown
Princess's friend. Bismarck noted these things carefully,
and sedulously fostered the growing disapproval of the
mythical English interference in Prussian affairs.

Just prior to Queen Victoria's visit to Coburg, Austria
had attempted to take the solution of the German question
into her own hands by initiating a scheme for reforming
the Federal Constitution, and the Emperor Francis Joseph
invited the Princes and the free cities of Germany to a
conference in August at Frankfort to discuss the reorgan-
isation of the Germanic Confederation. King William
was inclined to accept this proposal, but Bismarck held
other views, insisting on complete equality with Austria
in Federal affairs. A further invitation from the Emperor
suggesting that the King should send the Crown Prince
to the Congress of Princes, was also declined.

Nevertheless the Congress was held, and coincided
with Queen Victoria's visit to Coburg. Hence there was
held a sort of family gathering at Coburg, presided over
by Queen Victoria, at which the Crown Prince and
Princess were prominent figures. The Congress, owing
to King William's absence, was futile ; and the well-meant
efforts of Queen Victoria, who saw both King William
and the Emperor Francis Joseph, failed to bring them
into accord. Only a year earlier Bismarck had first made
public use of the tremendous phrase that the German

E 49

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1863 question would have to be solved by " blood and iron ".
An opportunity was not long to be delayed of putting
this grim policy to the test. In less than a year there
was war with Denmark over the duchies of Schleswig
and Holstein, and within four years a war with Austria
for the leadership of Germany.

The causes that led to the war with Denmark have
long been the subject of dispute among historians, and it
is perhaps just sufficient to indicate the events prior to the
outbreak of war.

On March 30, 1863, a Danish Royal Patent was issued
arbitrarily granting to Holstein a new form of government
but separating it entirely from Schleswig — which was left
under the Danish Rigsraad — and imposing additional
financial burdens on both duchies. This was followed up
in the late autumn by the incorporation of the duchy
of Schleswig in the kingdom of Denmark. The bill for
this, passed on November 13, never received the signa-
ture of King Frederick VIL, who died two days later.
He was succeeded by his nephew, King Christian IX., the
father of Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Three days after
his accession King Christian reluctantly ratified this act

The position was complicated by the fact that there
was a third claimant to the duchy of Schleswig (as well
as to that of Holstein) in the person of Duke Frederick of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, known
familiarly as Fritz Augustenburg, whose partisans in-
cluded the Crown Prince and Princess, the King of
Hanover, the Duke of Coburg and the heads of a few
minor German states. Queen Victoria sympathised with
the German aspirations and with the claims of the heredi-
tary Prince of Augustenburg, but members of her own
family as well as those of the royal families of Prussia
5°

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

and Denmark took various sides with ardent enthusiasm. 1864
The question in fact came like a dividing sword between
the royal circles of those three countries. The British
royal family was connected intimately with both Den-
mark and Prussia, for two of Queen Victoria's daughters
had married German princes, while her eldest son, the
Prince of Wales, had married Princess Alexandra (Alix)
of Denmark in March 1863. On January 5, 1864, the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

... Of politics I can say nothing — only this much which will
give you pleasure, which is that the King is much kinder to Fritz
and that the Queen is much pleased with him.

My thoughts and wishes are with Fritz Augustenburg, who
has embarked on a difficult course, though it was the right one.
But I feel much for poor King Christian, with his kind feelings and
good heart he must find the position he is in doubly disagreeable.
I hope dearest Alix does not fret too much about it all. King
Christian has himself to thank for the fix he is in — why did he
accept and allow himself to be put in a place not rightfully his
own ? He might now be living in peace and quiet. . . .

Bismarck now seized the opportunity to his hand,
and on January 16, 1864, issued an ultimatum to King
Christian to evacuate and abandon Schleswig within
twenty-four hours. War resulted.

"With the outbreak of war the Crown Princess found
herself at odds with her brother and sister-in-law, the
Prince and Princess of Wales, who naturally supported
Denmark ; and with the King and Queen of Prussia,
who naturally supported Bismarck.

On the failure of King Christian to abandon Schleswig
at Bismarck's bidding, Prussian and Austrian troops in-
vaded the duchy. The gallant but hopeless resistance of
the Danes excited tremendous sympathy in England, and
Lord Palmerston, die Prime Minister, and Lord Russell,

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1864 the Foreign Secretary, reflected public opinion in scath-
ing denunciations of the brutal attack. The government,
however, stopped short at threats, for Queen Victoria's
influence was on the side of neutrality.

The position was now doubly difficult for the Crown
Prince and Princess. Whilst regarding " Fritz Augusten-
burg " as the rightful claimant, reasons of state compelled
their identification with the Prussian policy, to the un-
disguised impatience of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
The Crown Prince, as a Lieutenant-General in the
Prussian army, was of course called up for active service,
which occasioned further bitterness between the Crown
Princess and her brother. " Vicky little dreamt ", wrote
the King of the Belgians to Queen Victoria several
months later (June 15, 1864), "in selecting a charming
(Danish) Princess (for her brother) that she would be-
come a source of difficulties for England, and perhaps the
cause of a popular war against Prussia.'3

On January 21 the German troops under Marshal
Wrangel entered Holstein, and on February 5 the Danes
abandoned their lines of defence — the Dannewerke — in
order to save their army. The change in the attitude of
the Crown Princess may be gathered from her letter of
February 8 to Queen Victoria :

The turn the campaign has taken astonishes us all very much, as
we thought the taking of the Dannewerke would be a dreadful
business and no one dreamt of the Danes abandoning their position.

I hope and pray that the war may end with honour to our dear
troops and attain all the results which Germany expects. You say,
dear Mama, that you are glad you have not the blood of so many
innocents on your conscience. We have nobody to thank for it
but Lord Palmerston and the Emperor Nicholas. If they had not
meddled with what did not concern them in the year '48, these
sad consequences would not have ensued. , . .

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

It is impossible to blame an English person for not under- 1864
standing the Schleswig-Holstein question — after the mess the two
Great Powers of Germany have made of it, — it remains nevertheless
to us Germans plain and simple as daylight and one for which we
would gladly bring any sacrifice.

The succeeding weeks saw the continued advance of
the Prussian and Austrian troops which culminated in
March and April by a fierce attack on the village and
fortress of Diippel or Dybbol. The virulent comments
in the British press on the conduct of the allies now turned
the opinion of the Crown Princess into even more
definite channels, especially when the bombardment of
Sonderburg, a town on the island of Alsen covered by
the bridgehead of Diippel, was described as brutal and
violent.

If the bombardment [the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria on April 13] of Sonderburg has raised ill feeling towards
us in England — the most absurd, unjust, rude and violent attacks
— in the Times and in Parliament — can only increase the irritation or
rather more contempt, which is expressed in no measured terms here
and generally felt for England's position in the Danish question.

But even the French see this and defend us against the really
childishly indignant attacks upon us — in the Presse of the roth.

I can see nothing inhuman or improper in any way in the
bombardment of Sonderburg — it was necessary and we hope it
has been useful. "What would Lord Russell say if we were every
instant to make enquiries about what is going on in Japan —
where Admiral Kuper was not so intensely scrupulous as to
bombardments.

I quite agree with Mr. Bernal Osborne who calls in his most
excellent speech in the Times of the 9th the perpetual unnecessary
questions which are asked of us here and at Vienna " Hysteric
fussiness ". The continual meddling and interfering of England in
other people's affairs has become so ridiculous abroad that it almost
ceases to annoy. But to an English heart it is no pleasant sight to
see the dignity of one's country so compromised and let down —
its influence so completely lost.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1864 The highly pathetic, philanthropic and virtuous tone in which
all the attacks against Prussia are made, has something intensely
ridiculous about it. The English would not like it if they were
engaged in a war, to be dictated to in a pompous style, how they
were to conduct it, indeed I am sure they would not stand such
interference. Why should we then be supposed to submit to it ?

In May a truce was arranged, but hostilities broke out
afresh in June. The Danes, however, were in no condi-
tion to continue the struggle and quickly sued for peace.
The peace which followed secured Prussia and Austria
in the joint occupation of the two duchies. On May 26
the Crown Princess wrote :

... I really do begin to think politics are taking a more
favourable turn and do not despair of things ending pretty well
now I What a blessing ! Furious as everyone is here about England,
the King never misses an opportunity of saying how much he
owes you, and how grateful he is to you for your endeavours to
keep peace, etc., etc., which he feels certain would not have been
preserved but for you. I hope and trust a peace will be made on a
basis which will for ever prevent the recurrence of hostilities on
the subject of the duchies, and which will bring them and their
duke to their lawful rights.

One thing I own torments me much, it is the feeling of ani-
mosity between our two countries ; it is so dangerous and pro-
ductive of such harm! It is kept up too by such foolish trifles,
which might be so well avoided. Prussia has gained unpopularity
for itself since some time, on account of the King's illiberal govern-
ment, but the feeling against us now in England is most unjust 1
Now dear Papa is no longer here I live in continual dread that the
bonds which united our two countries for their mutual good are
being so loosened that they may in time be quite severed! A great
deal depends on who is Minister, that is Ambassador, here. Sir A.
Buchanan, who is an excellent man, whom I honour and like
personally, is quite unfit for the place and has made himself a very
bad position here. He knows no German and understands nothing
whatever of German affairs, nor of the position Prussia holds in
the different questions which arise. He does not listen to those

EARLY YEARS IN PRUSSIA

who do know, and is consequently continually misinformed and 1864
misrepresents things totally, as I saw out of the blue book. He is
very unpopular here and has no sort of influence. He picks up
his information from bad sources, such as other silly diplomatists
who understand nothing at all (the Brazilian, for instance). Sir
Andrew is a high Tory and dislikes everything Liberal, the con-
sequence of which is that he totally misunderstands the positions
of our political parties ; our Conservative party in England cannot
be compared with the Kreu% Zeitung^ it is quite a different thing.
Strange to say, in spite of all the ill-treatment he has received at
his hands, Sir A. has a secret liking for Bismarck.

With the end of the Danish War it seemed as if the
interrupted cordialities between the Princess Frederick
and her brother, the Prince of Wales, might be renewed,
but the embers of distrust smouldered for a few months
longer. In October the Prince and Princess of Wales,
after visiting Denmark, proceeded to Germany and at
Cologne had a brief meeting with the Crown Prince
(fresh from the battlefield) and Princess. The family
differences flamed up afresh.

"I can assure you"a the Prince of Wales wrote to Lord
Spencer on November 7, ee it was not pleasant to see him (the
Crown Prince) and his A.D.C. always in Prussian uniform, flaunt-
ing before our eyes a most objectionable ribbon which he received
for his deeds of 'valour •? ? ? against the unhappy Danes." x

1 Sir Sidney Lee, Life of King Edward VIL vol. L p. 256.

CHAPTER III

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

1865 THE Danish War was only a rung in Bismarck's tall ladder
of Prussian aggrandisement and German unity* In those
days the rights of small nations were an unknown quan-
tity, but even if the defence of the weak against the strong
had been a European aphorism then, it is doubtful
whether this solicitude for the smaller countries would
have found any place in Bismarck's theories, "Within two
years the alliance with Austria had served its turn. It
was Queen Victoria who had expressed the view that it
was " a sacred duty " to strengthen Prussia's prestige —
an opinion warmly held by the Crown Princess, but now
war between Prussia and Austria almost meant civil war
within her family circle. The Crown Princess's brother-
in-law, the Grand Duke of Hesse, her cousin the King
of Hanover, her uncle Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, and
many others of her German kinsfolk were ranging them-
selves on Austria's side. The Crown Prince Frederick,
however, no matter on which side his relations might be,
was bound to fight at the head of a Prussian army against
his wife's German relatives.

Meanwhile Bismarck was in no temper to conciliate
either the Crown Princess or her mother, Queen Victoria,
for several events of minor importance had occurred
during the preceding year which tended to widen the
breach between them. Early that year it became evident

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

that Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg- 1865
Augustenburg, the younger brother of that Duke
Frederick ("Fritz Augustenburg" as the Crown Princess
called him) whose claim to the duchies of Schleswig
and Holstein, although supported by the Crown Prince
and Princess, had been so contemptuously dismissed
by Bismarck, was eager to win the hand of Queen
Victoria's daughter. Princess Helena. When the Danish
War ended, Bismarck had shown the force of his mailed
fist by depriving Duke Frederick and Prince Christian of
their property, commissions and standing. It was obvious
that those who endeavoured to thwart the Iron Chancellor
must take the consequences.

Queen Victoria, however, had preserved an open
mind, and when rumour began to spread as to Prince
Christian's admiration of her daughter, she wrote, early
in April 1865, to the Crown Princess asking for her
opinion of the Prince, and the Crown Princess replied
(April 18) :

You ask about Christian. You know he is our Hausfreitnd. He
comes and goes when he likes, walks and breakfasts and dines with
us, when he is here and we are alone. He is the best creature in the
world ; not as clever as Fritz (Augustenburg), but certainly not
wanting in any way. He is very amusing when he chooses. We
like him very much. He is almost bald ; is not like Fritz, more
like his father and eldest sister. He has a much better figure than
his brother, and quite a military tournure. Nor is he so distinguished
as Fritz, of whom I have the highest possible opinion as regards
his character and intellect.

Christian is very fond of children and speaks English. I send
you a photograph of him which he gave me. He has not the fine
eyes of his brother, but a better mouth and chin. He has the same
way of speaking as they all have.

His position here is not an easy or an agreeable one ; but he
manages to get on very well. . . .

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1865 When this favourable opinion of the Crown Princess's
was supported by one of the ladies of the Queen of
Prussia, Countess Bliicher, who was, as Queen Victoria
wrote to King Leopold, " most favourable to the idea ",
Queen Victoria at once began to consider " how by
degrees it could naturally be brought about ".

In the summer of 1865 Queen Victoria journeyed to
Coburg to unveil, on August 26, a statue to the Prince
Consort, and thither she summoned the Prince of Wales
and the Crown Prince and Princess. Altogether twenty-
four of the Queen's near kinsfolk — the majority of them
German — attended the ceremony, and among the visitors
was (as she wrote) the " extremely pleasing, gentleman-
like, quiet and distinguished " Prince Christian. Queen
Victoria took advantage of the occasion to publish her
approval of Princess Helena's engagement to him. Bis-
marck was furious at this implied rebuke of his treat-
ment of Duke Frederick and Prince Christian. That
Queen Victoria should publish in such circumstances her
assent to an engagement which would obviously offend
Prussian susceptibilities, was interpreted by him to be a
demonstration of defiance not only on her part, but on
the part of the Crown Prince and Princess, and he was
slow to forget it

The following year the tension between Prussia and
Austria grew. The Danish War had resulted in Prussia
and Austria being co-occupants of the duchies of Schles-
wig and Holstein : by now Bismarck regarded Austria
as an encumbrance and early in 1866 it was evident that
the issue of peace or war between the ci-devant allies was
hanging by a thread.

We are still [wrote the Crown Princess to Queen Victoria on
April 4, 1866] suspended midway between peace and war ; not a

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

day passes without some little incident which might be easily laid 1866
hold of to turn the scales on the side of peace, and not a day passes
that the wicked man does not with the greatest ability counteract
and thwart what is good, and drive on towards war, turning and
twisting everything to serve his own purpose.

As often as we are a little hopeful again and see a means of
getting out of the fix, we hear shortly after that the means have
been rendered unavailable ; the tissue of untruths is such that
one gets quite perplexed with only listening to them, but the net is
cleverly made, and the King (of Prussia), in spite of all his reluct-
ance, gets more and more entangled in it without perceiving it. ...

It was as the German Crown Princess said — Bismarck
had so complicated the issues that war was inevitable.
Every effort? however, was made, not only by the Crown
Princess, but also by Queen Victoria, to find some means
of averting the conflict. Queen Victoria herself tried to
moderate Prussian aggressiveness by appealing to the
King of Prussia on April 10, to avoid war. She again
wrote early in May, this time through the Crown Prince,
suggesting a European Conference. A few days later
(May 19) the Crown Princess wrote dolefully from Pots-
dam to the Queen :

... I have hardly courage to write, I can do nothing but harp
on that one unfortunate theme. Fritz gave your letter to the King,
but he has not said anything about it. Fritz does not think the
King will accept the proposal, and thinks that the Congress could
only propose solutions which either Prussia or Austria would not
agree to. I do not despair, but I think the chances of peace become
smaller every day! Heaven help usl It is a most miserable,
wretched time.

Our christening x will be such a sad one ; the day after, my
Fritz leaves and joins his troops, taking the command of the
Silesian Army ; when and where I shall see him again I do not
know ; what I feel I cannot tell you. I think my heart will break.
All is uncertain, and ruin and misfortune of every kind likely.

1 The Princess Victoria was born on April 12, 1866.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1866 We hear nothing talked of all day but war and preparations for
it. The command which Fritz has received is very fine and very
honourable, but a most difficult one; he will have almost ex-
clusively Poles under him, which you know are not so pleasant as
Germans. He is busy forming his staff and has been lucky enough
to get some very good officers. . . .

In June war broke out, and there followed that short,
brilliant Seven Weeks* War which resulted in the humilia-
tion of Austria and gave Prussia the hegemony of Ger-
many.

The distress of the Crown Princess at seeing her hus-
band depart on another campaign against an apparently
much more formidable foe than the Danes was now
intensified by the loss of her youngest boy, Prince Sigis-
mund, who died on June 18, at the age of twenty-one
months. On June 19 she wrote to Queen Victoria :

Your suffering child turns to you in her grief, sure to find
sympathy from so tender a heart, so versed in sorrow. The hand
of Providence is heavy upon me. I have to bear this awful trial
alone, without my poor Fritz. My little darling graciously lent me
for a short time, to be my pride, my joy, my hope, is gone, gone,
where my passionate devotion cannot follow, from where my love
cannot recall him! Oh spare me telling you how, and when, and
where my heart was rent and broken, let me only say that I do
not murmur or repine, God's Will be done.

What I suffer none can know, few knew how I loved. It was
my own happy secret, the long cry of agony which rises from the
inmost depth of my soul, reaches Heaven alone.

I wish you to know all, you are so kind, darling Mama, that
you will wish to hear all about the last terrible days. I cannot
describe them. I am calm now, for Fritz's sake and my little one's,
but oh how bitter is this cup. . . .

Queen Victoria's sympathetic reply brought the fol-
lowing letter from the Princess (June 26, 1866) :

A thousand thanks for your dear lines — and the poems — they
touched and soothed me. In moments of extreme grief— when one
60

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

seems unable to realise what has happened, or how one can still 1866
be living at all, one's thoughts naturally turn to those who have
gone through the ordeal of such suffering — and is thankful for
kindness and sympathizing words 1 So my thoughts turned to you I
Our afflictions cannot be compared, they are too different, but each
heart knoweth its own bitterness. A little child does not seem a
great loss to other people — but none know but God how I suffer.
Oh how I loved that little thing, from the first moments of its birth,
it was more to me than its brothers and sisters, it was so fair, so
loving, so bright and merry, how proud I was of my little one ;
and just this one my heart's best treasure was taken, and the sorrow
seems greater than I can bear. Oh, to see it suffer so cruelly, to see
it die and hear its last piteous cry — was an agony I cannot describe,
it haunts me night and dayl The last few months my little Sigie
had grown so wonderfully forward and intelligent, he was so
clever, much more than either of the others, and I thought he
was going to be like Papa. Fritz and I idolized him — he had
such dear, sweet, winning little ways, and was like a little sunbeam
in the house.

Now to see his little empty bed — his clothes, his toys lying
about, to miss him every hour and long — oh so bitterly, so fondly
and deeply to fold him once more to my heart — it is such cruel
suffering. My child, my child, is all I can say! I shall never see it
more. I know he is spared sin and suffering. I know that his life
was bright and happy as it was short. I feel that I left nothing
undone which could have given him joy or comfort. I do not
repine or refuse to take the comfort which God had mercifully
granted, but I grieve even unto death.

Thanks for thinking of me on Thursday. Yes it was trying
and awful, but only for the nerves and the imagination, the blow
had fallen, and what is the rest to be compared to it. For two days
I could not shed a tear — at the sad solemn ceremony.mine were
the only dry eyes. I could not cry 1 My poor Fritz away and at so
difficult and dangerous a post. It is a blessing for him that his
mind must be occupied with other things. I will not give way. I
mean to do my duty and neglect nothing — work and occupation
are the only things which can restore balance to my mind, not
drown my grief or fill the blank in my heart. Oh no, no time can
do that, that sweet little face will ever be there and the yearning
for it, but I have many and sacred duties to live for — and I will

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1866 do them to the utmost of my power- — for those other dear children,
for my poor dear Fritz 1

What our future may be is now very uncertain, when I doubted
of that formerly, I used to think earthly goods were so unimportant
— as long as we had our little family circle unbroken, and I looked
with pride and gratitude on our little flock of five. . . .

Four days later, the Princess again wrote from the
Neue Palais :

You have written me three such dear letters, so kind, comforting
and soothing. Many many thanks for them. If I ever anxiously
expected your letters, it is now when all around share the violent
excitement of the awful events passing around, and I alone feel that
they cannot drive away my grief. My darling little Love is ever
in my thoughts, dulling my sense to other things. A little child is
no loss to the rest of the world, none miss it, but to me it is a
part of myself, one of my chief interests in life. My little Sigie's
loss has cast a gloom over this house and over my whole existence
which will never quite wear off. My dear dear little boy. I keep
saying that all day. Yesterday I packed up all the clothes I had
worked for him all the winter with such pleasure, and that he
looked so sweet and pretty in. Tomorrow morning we leave this
place where I have been since the night in which Victoria was
born — it seems so strange to me to leave one of my little ones
here.

My Fritz writes to me very often, he has been in a battle,
Heaven protect him. Everyone joins in his praise, which of course
is very gratifying to me, his heart is sad and heavy, but he thinks
of his duty before all — he is so good — oh, when shall I see him
again, and when I do, what a meeting that will be. What have we
both gone through since we parted. I know you think of us and
feel for your children, dearest Mama, and that is most comforting
to us. I say nothing about the war — you know what I think, my
head is too weak now to put my idea into a reasonable form.
You will not think it unnatural, I know, that my feelings are on the
side of my country and husband, though of course one can feel
nothing but despair at being obliged to consider other Germans
as one's enemies — and wish for their destruction. ... I cannot
describe what a cruel contradiction of feelings one has to pass
62

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

through, but over all sounds my darling's last cry, and the tears 1866
that I shed for all the poor fallen and wounded and their afflicted
families flow over his little grave. . . .

The Princess, putting her own sorrows aside, now
turned her energies to the urgent and necessary work of
aiding the war hospital service, and in her letter of July 5
begged her mother to send some hospital supplies for the
sufferers :

What will you say [she wrote from Heringsdorf] to all that is
going on? How terrible is this loss of life. . . . I work very hard
to scrape together necessaries for the hospitals, but one finds all
exertions cannot supply the wants which are so fearful and so
immense. If you can send me something I should be so glad —
in our hospitals Austrians, Saxons and Prussians are all taken care
of together — therefore what you send will be for all the poor
victims. Heaven grant it may soon be at an end. Sponges and
old linen are most wanted.

I am so overburdened with writing that I have not been able to
answer any letters of condolence yet; all my time is devoted to
what I can do to be of any use to Fritz. He is well, I am thank-
ful to say ; but to know his precious life is exposed keeps me in
such a tremble. He writes to me often and such kind beautiful
letters.

My little people are quite well and send you their love — little
Victoria is very fat and healthy. Will you say all that is tender
and affectionate to dear good Lenchen 1 from me — she knows that
I think of her and how truly I love her — and wish her every
happiness.

The brilliant rapidity with which the well-trained
Prussian armies overwhelmed their Austrian opponents
now brought in its train the lists of the slain and honours
for the living. To the Crown Prince fell the glory of
winning the battles of Nachod (June 27), Skalicz (June
28) and Schweinschadel (June 29), and on July 3 came

1 Princess Helena.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1866 the battle of Sadowa, or Koniggratz, with the total defeat
of the Austrians.

. . . What do you say [wrote the Crown Princess on July 9,
1866] to all these dreadful battles ? Are you not a little pleased
that it is our Fritz alone who has won all these victories ? You
know how hard I tried to help in preventing the calamity of war,
and how Fritz [did] too, but now it is there I am thankful to think
that our cause under Fritz's leadership has been victorious.

You cannot think how modest he is about it — never seeking
praise, always doing his duty. The soldiers adore him. I am told
that when they get sight of him there is always a perfect burst of
enthusiasm amongst them. He is leading a dreadfully hard life,
but never complains. But the bodily fatigue of being seldom in
bed, sometimes thirteen hours on horseback, is nothing, he says, to
the exertion of directing so dangerous an undertaking and to all the
violent emotions of the contest and the awful impressions of the
horrors on the field of battle. To one so kind I know what the
shock to his nerves must be.

You know I am not blind or prejudiced, but I must say I
have the greatest respect and admiration for our soldiers. I think
they behave wonderfully. I hope you will read some of our papers
to have an idea of what they have gone through.

A week later she sent some details of the war, gathered
from the impressions of eye-witnesses. However proud
the Princess might be of the valour of the Prussian troops,
there was one thing she could not forget, and that was
that the war had been forced by Bismarck.

. . . There is a good deal [she wrote on July 16] that will
interest you, I think — will you please send the papers back when
you have done with them. Louise, Arthur, Major Elphinstone and
Mr. Sahl and Fraulein Bauer may like to see them. I would rather
Bertie did not, please, or that they did not go any further as they
are not written for other people, but merely what is natural that a
Prussian officer should write to his wife.

You know I consider the war a mistake caused by the un-
controlled power of an unprincipled man — that I have no dislike
to the poor Austrians in general and that therefore I really can

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

speak impartially. I assure you that if the rest of Europe did but 1866
know the details of this war — the light in which our officers and
men — and our public at large have shown themselves — the Prussian
people would stand high in the eyes of everyone, and I feel that I
am now every bit as proud of being a Prussian as I am of being an
Englishwoman and that is saying a very great deal, as you know
what a " John Bull " I am and how enthusiastic about my home.
I must say the Prussians are a superior race, as regards intelligence
and humanity, education and kindheartedness — and therefore I
hate the people all the more who by their ill-government and mis-
management, etc., rob the nation of the sympathies it ought to
have. My affection to it is not blind — but sincere — for I respect
and admire their valuable and sterling good qualities.

I know quite well that they can be unamiable — and make them-
selves distasteful (there is no disputing tastes), that they have their
little absurdities, etc., but at heart they are excellent. And the
amiable engaging Austrians commit cruelties and barbarities which
make one's hair stand on end. Fritz says he never could have
credited it had he not been a witness to it himself. It is their bad
education and their religion, I suppose. Oh, may the war soon
cease, it is so horrible. I have lost so many acquaintances!

I send you a photo of Miss Victoria — it is not at all favourable —
she is such a dear pretty little thing and so lively — she crows and
laughs and jumps and begins to sit up and has short petticoats. If I
was not continually reminded of what we have lost I should enjoy
her so much — and be proud of her too. . . . Henry and Willy are
very good and do not give any trouble, they are very happy here.

A few days later peace seemed probable between the
belligerents, but the Crown Princess was not over-
optimistic.

. . , Peace [she wrote on July 27] seems to be doubtful again
and I tremble lest the war should be taken up again as I feel
certain there would be some more dreadful battles like the day of
Koniggratz. Poor Uncle Alexander how I pity him — to be minister
at a time when all goes so ill. I am sure it is not his fault.

The war with the minor states •*• seems sadder than that with

1 Hanover, Saxony, Hesse-Cassel and other minor German
states were on the side of the Austrians.

F 65

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1866 Austria — it is so much more trying to one's feelings that are all
conflicting. "We have to thank no one but Bismarck for all this.
If Germany arises more united, powerful, free and happy from this
calamity, one may in time forget the wounds under which one
now suffers, but it will never make the war appear justified in my
eyes!

I rejoice as a Prussian at the heroic conduct of our troops —
but my joy is damped with the fear that they have shed their
blood in vain. With such a man and such principles at the head
of our Government how can I look forward to satisfactory results
for Germany, or for usl

What with the cholera and the battles how many poor families
are plunged into grief and distress. It is so sad! No heart can
feel more for others than mine which is so heavy and sore I . . .

The campaign proved, as the Danish campaign had
proved, the soldier-like qualities of the Crown Prince,
and it was with no little relief and pride that the Crown
Princess welcomed him back again. On August 10 she
wrote to her mother from Heringsdorf :

The day after I wrote to you darling Fritz arrived. I drove
into a wood with the children and met him there. We were much
overcome and our feelings were of a most mingled nature, as you
can easily understand. He is looking well, only thinner and
perhaps a little older; at least his beard and his serious expression
made him appear so. He has gone through a great deal, but is as
humble and modest about all he has done as possible, which all
really good and right-minded men must be. ...

About the King of Hanover, he has received a letter from Uncle
George, and the Grand Duke of Oldenburg comes here today to
express the same wish. At this sad time one must separate one's
feelings for one's relations quite from one's judgment of political
necessities, or one would be swayed to and fro on all sides by the
hopes, wishes and desires expressed by those one would be sorry
to grieve ; it is one of the consequences resulting from this war.
Nothing will or can ever shake Fritz's principles of sound liberalism
and justice, but you know by experience that one must proceed in
the direction given by the political events which have come to
pass. Those who are now in such precarious positions might have
66

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

quite well foreseen what danger they were running into ; they were 1866
told beforehand what they would have to expect ; they chose to go
with Austria and they now share the sad fate she confers on her
Allies. Those who have taken our side or remained neutral are
quite unharmed, for example Uncle Ernest, the Duke of Anhalt,
the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg, etc. . . . They all [i.e. those
states which had sided with Austria] believed the untrue statement
of Austria about the strength of her own forces, and would not
see that Prussia was likely to be victorious, and so the poor things
have broken their own necks. Oh, how cruel it is to have one's
heart and one's head thus set at right angles!

A liberal German-feeling reasonable Prussian Government would
have prevented it all! But as it was not to be decided a VamlaUe^
as rivers of blood have flowed, and the sword decided this contest,
the victor must make his own terms and they must be hard ones
for many!

I cannot and will not forget that I am a Prussian, but as such
I know it is very difficult to make you, or any other non-German,
see how our case lies. We have made enormous sacrifices, and the
nation expects them not to be in vain. . . .

Twelve days later (August 22) the treaty of peace was
signed at Prague, and on January 24, 1867, Schleswig and
Holstein were formally incorporated with Prussia. One
of the terms of peace, however, was to be the occasion of
much bitterness between the Crown Princess and Bis-
marck. As a punishment for the action of Hanover in
siding with Austria that state was annexed to Prussia
(September 1866), and eighteen months later part of the
private property of the King of Hanover was sequestrated.

In the following years, in spite of the manifold activ-
ities of state, the Princess devoted the greater part of her
time to the education and upbringing of her sons, and it
must have been with keen interest that she read such
letters as the following from their tutor, Mr. Thomas
Dealtry, on April 30, 1870, relative to their progress :

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 As my readings with Prince William and Prince Henry of
Prussia are about to close, I venture to represent to Your Royal
Highness the impression I have received of your Royal sons and
the gratification I have derived from assisting in their studies.

After having enjoyed many opportunities of watching their
characters and dispositions, I can truly say that one seldom meets
with boys more engaging or of greater promise.

Prince William has read with me, besides English history, most
of Sir Walter Scott's and Macaulay's poetical works, Bishop Heber's
Palestine^ and many of his minor poems, and selections from Tenny-
son and other English authors. Many pieces he has committed to
memory. His Royal Highness has, I think, advanced satisfactorily
in his knowledge of the English language, and has evinced a real
love for English literature. His interest in his studies has added
much to the enjoyment of the hours I have passed with him. His
pronunciation and accent still need cultivation.

I have been greatly struck with his generous and manly instincts.
Indeed both the Princes are remarkable for their gentlemanly tone
of thought and feeling. Prince Henry is as far advanced as most
boys of his age.

I do not think they could be better trained than they are, and
I am sure their progress and growing intelligence will repay the
unceasing and devoted care of their excellent Governor.

A little later, on May 28, 1870, the Princess herself
wrote from Bornstaedt to Queen Victoria on the subject
of her eldest son :

The poor arm is no better, and William begins to feel being
behind much smaller boys in every exercise of the body — he cannot
run fast, because he has no balance, nor ride, nor climb, nor cut
his food, etc. ... I wonder he is as good-tempered about it.
His tutor thinks he will feel it much more, and be much unhappier
about it as he grows older, and feels himself debarred from every-
thing which others enjoy, and particularly so as he is so strong and
lively and healthy. It is a hard trial for him and for us. Nothing
is neglected that can be done for it, but there is so little to be
done. Whenever we have the good fortune of going to England
again, Mr. Paget and the first surgeons must see it, although I
know that it is but little use. We have Langenbeck's advice, and
he is one of the best surgeons of the day.
68

THE AUSTRIAN WAR

Every possible avenue was explored by the Crown 1870
Princess to secure for her eldest son the full employment
of his injured arm, but all proved unavailing. From time
to time she would alternate between hope and fear ; hop-
ing passionately that fresh treatment might cure the ill,
and then again reduced to despair by the failure of each
successive effort.

CHAPTER IV
THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

1870 SCARCELY had Europe recovered from the Danish and
Austrian wars of 1864 and 1866 when, in the summer of
1870, the tocsin of war was again sounded,

Bismarck wanted war. Napoleon III. wanted war.
History teaches that there has never been the slightest
difficulty in finding a pretext for war when one is wanted,
but while Napoleon's object was to retain his throne,
Bismarck thought that by war and war alone could the
unity of Germany be achieved. Napoleon III. thought his
army was ready, while Bismarck knew the Prussian war
machine was in perfect working order.

It was the domestic difficulties of Spain that gave them
the opportunity they wanted, each being under the de-
lusion that he could cloud the issue and put the other in
the wrong. The Spaniards, having driven Queen Isabella
from the throne in September 1868 under the false im-
pression that they were cleansing the country from corrup-
tion, became hopelessly divided when it came to choosing
a new form of government and proved themselves wholly
incapable of settling their own domestic troubles. Bis-
marck, realising that France would or must in certain
eventualities intervene, manoeuvred to make what would
appear to the world to be the free choice of a ruler by
the Spaniards an occasion for such intervention. Marshal
Prim, who was virtually the dictator of Spain, although
70

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

a puppet of Bismarck, was encouraged to ask for the 1870
Roman Catholic Prince Leopold, the eldest son of Prince
Anthony of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. After protracted
negotiations lasting several months this German Prince
declined, but at Bismarck's instigation Marshal Prim re-
newed his offer.

On March 12, 1870, the Crown Princess wrote to
Queen Victoria, begging her advice in the intricate
matter :

. . . Now I must give a message from Fritz, in fact it is no
business of mine, but he wishes me to write it to you in his name,
and to consider it most profoundly secret.

General Prim has sent a Spaniard here with several autograph
letters from himself to Leopold Hohenzollern, urging him most
earnestly to accept the crown of Spain, saying he would be elected
by two-thirds of the Cortes. They do not wish the French to
know it, but the King, Prince Hohenzollern, Leopold and Fritz,
wish to know your opinion in private. . . .

Neither the King, nor Prince Hohenzollern, nor Antoinette
(Princess Leopold), nor Leopold, nor Fritz are in favour of the
idea, thinking it painful and unpleasant to accept a position which
has legitimate claimants. General Prim makes it very pressing, and
that is the reason why they want a little time to consider whether
it be right or no to give a refusal. Here no one as yet knows any-
thing about it. Will you please let me have an answer which I
can show the persons mentioned ? Perhaps you would write it in
German to Fritz, as it is particularly disagreeable to me to be a
medium of communication in things so important and serious.

It seems the Spaniards are determined to have no agnate of the
Bourbon family.

In the following months there appeared to be every
possibility of the negotiations being successful in solving
the difficulty. On July 4, 1870, however, Prince Leopold
accepted the Prussian nomination, and King William
accorded his permission.

The news of the Hohenzollern candidature came like a

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 bombshell and startled Europe. The Emperor Napoleon
and M. Ollivier, the virtual head of the French Ministry,
hesitated before taking any step, but the Due de Gramont,
the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, declared at once
that the candidature could not be tolerated ; the Paris
press took up the cry, and the Chamber supported the
Due de Gramont in his vehement protest. The British
Government, Queen Victoria, the King of the Belgians
and other friends of peace concentrated upon persuading
Prince Leopold to withdraw his candidature. The Crown
Princess, now recovering from the birth of her third
daughter, the Princess Sophie, who was born on June 14,
•was bewildered by the sudden changes in the European
kaleidoscope, and wrote on July 6 to Queen Victoria :

After the Spanish crown had been decidedly refused by the
Hohenzollerns and the King, the former have been applied to again,
and, having changed their minds meanwhile, seem likely to accept
it — much to the King's and Queen's annoyance who wisely keep
out of the matter and have nothing more to do with it, dreading,
as we do, that complications may arise for Prussia, as it is easy
more or less to identify the Hohenzollerns with us and with our
government. I fear it is a sad mistake on the part of the Hohen-
zollerns, though I have no doubt that Leopold and Antoinette
are as fitted for such a place as the young Duke of Genoa, or
many of the others who have been named. Still I cannot but
regret their decision, not for Spain but for themselves and us.
Fritz will send you a little memorandum on the subject by
messenger ; he wishes you should know his opinion on this vexed
subject.1

At the moment there took place a change in the British
Foreign Secretaryship. On the death of Lord Clarendon,
Lord Granville was appointed the Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs. Lord Granville had no sooner entered

1 The Crown Prince's memorandum is given on pp. 22-24 of
vol. ii. of Queen Victorias Letters.

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

upon his new duties than he committed himself to the 1870
unguarded statement that no cloud obscured the peace of
Europe. Almost the first business, however, with which
he was called upon to deal, was Prince Leopold's candida-
ture for the Spanish crown, but fortunately in July he
was able to announce that this provocative nomination
had been withdrawn by Prussia. The Crown Princess,
under the imminent dread of another war, hailed the news
with relief.

As you may suppose [she wrote to her mother on July 13], the
agitation and suspense of the last few days have upset me terribly.
. . . But thank goodness there seems more chance of a good turn
in affairs, since we learn that Leopold Hohenzollern has resigned
of his own accord — of course the best thing he could do under
the circumstances. Here everyone preaches peace and wishes for
peace, and I have not heard one imprudent retort to the insulting
language of France, which is enough to try one's patience. But if
the French are determined to pick a quarrel with us, knowing (as
they must) that they are well prepared and we not at all — they
cannot choose a better moment for themselves, nor a worse one
for us, and I feel sure they will'push their audacity further and want
the Rhine — only England can prevent that. It was a great comfort
to read in your dear letter of the pth, which I received on Monday
and for which many thanks, that you also disapprove of the con-
duct of France. My horror at the thoughts of a war in our own
beloved country you can well imagine. War is horrible enough
at all times — for everyone — but what the prospect of it is to wives
and mothers is not to be described. Though I would not eat
humble pie for the French on any account, I trust it may blow
over. Fritz has been distracted — he wrote to the King and to
Bismarck and tried to do what he could at Berlin, but there is
hardly a soul left there — everyone is away at this time of the year
and no one dreamt of complications of any kind.

The danger, however, was far from dispelled. The
Emperor of the French unwisely asked for a guarantee
that Prussia would not repeat the offence. M. Benedetti,

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 the French Ambassador in Berlin, pressed the demand
upon the King of Prussia, who was then taking the waters
at Ems, but received the reply that while the King ap-
proved of Prince Leopold's withdrawal, he could give no
guarantees for the future ; beyond that he had nothing
to say. To Bismarck such a tame ending to an inter-
national incident which had been so promising as a
possible impasse was most disappointing, and he re-
solved to make one more effort to render war inevitable.
Napoleon HI. had put himself hopelessly in the wrong
and such an opportunity as this might not occur again.
Bismarck " edited " the official telegram from Ems, de-
scribing these events, in such a way as to inflame opinion
both in France and Germany, and to make war certain.
France walked into the trap and declared war on July 15.
Great Britain immediately proclaimed her neutrality,
although public opinion was generally on the side of
Prussia and most people thought that Napoleon III. and
the French Government had no right to attempt to
dictate to Germany.

The certainty of war was a cruel shock to the Crown
Princess, who, with many others, thought that France
was the aggressor and harboured the fear that within a
few months Hesse and the Rhine provinces would be
overrun by the French. If the cry in Paris was " to
Berlin ", that in Berlin was the far more moderate one of
"to the Rhine'5.

Whilst public opinion in England at first veered
strongly to Germany's side, feeling in Germany towards
England alternated between extremes of warmth and cold.
Later on Germany had reason to complain of British
" neutrality ". " We sit by ", wrote Sir Robert Morier,
" like a bloated Quaker, too holy to fight, but nibbing
74

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

our hands at the roaring trade we are doing in cartridges 1870
and ammunition." *

It was perhaps inevitable that the war should cause
friction between the Crown Princess and the English
Royal Family, although Queen Victoria made no secret
of her sympathies for Germany. The Crown Princess, in
ignorance of Bismarck's "editing" of the Ems telegram,
and feeling that Germany had been wantonly attacked,
took up the German cause with chauvinist enthusiasm,
while her brother the Prince of Wales, still smarting from
the behaviour of Germany to Denmark, was credited
with French sympathies. At a dinner at the French Em-
bassy in London he was reported to have expressed to the
Austrian Ambassador, Count Apponyi, his hopes of
Prussia's defeat and his anxiety that Austria might join
France. The story, no doubt with embellishments, was
embodied in a despatch from the Prussian Ambassador in
London to Count von Bernstorffin Berlin. Its repetition
in Prussian court circles soon reached the ear of the
Crown Princess, who wrote to her mother from the
Neue Palais on July 16, 1870 :

You must forgive me if my letter is rambling and incoherent,
fo-r my head is completely gone — fright, agitation and sorrow have
shaken my nerves very much. All hope is now at an end, and we
have the horrible prospect of the most terrible war Europe has yet
known before us, bringing desolation and ruin, perhaps annihila-
tion. You would pity me if you knew what my moral and mental
suffering is today, and yet the only way to go through such a
trial is to keep cool brains and a stout heart — and the latter I have.

We have been shamefully forced into this war, and the feeling
of indignation against an act of such crying injustice has risen in
two days here to such a pitch that you would hardly believe it ;
there is a universal cry " To arms " to resist an enemy who so
wantonly insults us.

1 The German Empire, W. H. Dawson, i. 346.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 870 "We are grateful indeed to Providence that you are on the throne
of England and that your Government has again so wisely and
zealously advocated peace, and tried to call the French to their
senses. The British sense of justice will I am sure not be blinded
by the French press. BernstorfT writes that Bertie had expressed his
delight to Count Apponyi that the Austrians were going to join the
French and his hope that we should fare ill. This he is said to have
loudly expressed at a dinner of the French Ambassador's. Perhaps
it is exaggerated, but of course it is a story related everywhere.

As soon as the rumour of the alleged indiscretion
reached the ears of the Prince of Wales, he at once denied
that he had made any such statement, and wrote to Mr.
Gladstone that the story lacked any foundation in truth.
So the incident ended officially, but there were many
people in Berlin who continued to believe that the Prince
of Wales was in sympathy with French aspirations and
that the Crown Princess, his sister, was tainted in like
manner.

In the meantime, however, the Crown Princess wrote
to her mother from the Neue Palais on July 18, 1870 :

... In the midst of sorrow, distress and trouble, the thought
of you is always a comforting and a cheering one. I saw the
King yesterday. I never felt so much for anyone — he was very
calm, but the load of anxiety seemed to make him ten years older
— he had a quiet dignity about him which could only increase
one's love and respect. If you could but see Fritz, how you would
admire him. He thinks so little of himself and only of others. It
is a dreadful trial for us — enough to strike terror into stronger
hearts than mine, but the enthusiasm which seems to be the same
with young and old, poor and rich, high and low, men and women,
is so affecting and beautiful that one must forget oneself. The
odds are fearfully against us in the awful struggle which is about
to commence and which we are forced into against our will,
knowing that our existence is at stake. In a week the flower of
the nation will be under arms, the best blood of the country. I
cannot think of the lives that will be lost, the thought maddens me
— how willingly would I give mine to save theirs. There is not a

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

family not torn asunder, not a woman's heart that is not near to 1870
breaking, and for what ? Oh that England could help us. I wish
no ill to France, nor to anyone, but I wish Europe could unite,
once for all to stop her ever again having it in her power to force
a war upon another nation. Think of Hesse, of our lovely Rhine,
think of our ports and sea towns. The harvest lost and thousands
of poor creatures without work or bread. It seems all a horrid
dream to me. Forgive my bad writing, my hand trembles so, and
I cannot collect my thoughts. The parting from Fritz I shudder at.
Alice and Louise of Baden must come to us — the King offers
Alice this Palace, and I am preparing all for her in case she should
come. The future is a perfect blank. What suffering may be in
store for us we do not know, but one thing we all know — that
as our honour and the safety of our country are at stake, no
sacrifice must be shunned. Our feelings are best expressed by
altering Lord Nelson's words to " Germany expects every man to
do his duty ". . . .

What a sad Christmas it will be! I am as well as can be
expected and try very hard not to make a fool of myself, which is
difficult, as my nerves are shaky. I have just this moment received
your dear letter of the i6th for which many thanks. It is a great
satisfaction to us that you are angry with the French for their
behaviour. The King and everyone are horrified at Bertie's speech
which is quoted everywhere. I wish I might say it is not true. . . »

To this Queen Victoria replied from Osborne on
July 20 :

Words are too weak to say all I feel for you or what I think of
my neighbours! We must be neutral as long as we can, but no one
here conceals their opinion as to the extreme iniquity of the war, and
the unjustifiable conduct of the French! Still more, publicly, we
cannot say ; but the feeling of the people and the country here is
all with you, which it was not before. And need I say what Ifeel? . . .

My heart bleeds for you all\ The awful suddenness of die thing
is so dreadful. Do not overworry yourself, not to make yourself
ill. Poor Alice makes us all very anxious, and she seems anxious
not to leave Darmstadt. I have no doubt that you will both advise
her for the best. My thoughts are constantly with you, wishing
your two daughters could be safe here. These divided interests in

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 royal families are quite unbearable. Human nature is not made for
such fearful trials, especially not mothers* and wives' hearts. But
God will watch over you all, I doubt not. You have the wannest
sympathy of all, and all the people in the house take the deepest
interest in you. . . .

Before the end of the first month of the war France
lost battle after battle and the success of the Germans
foretold the ultimate result. There were three armies of
invasion under the supreme command of the King of
Prussia, on whose staff were Moltke, Bismarck and Roon
(the War Minister). The first army was under the Bang's
personal direction, and the second under Prince Frederick
Charles, the King's brother. The third, consisting of the
South German troops, together with the Xlth and Vth
Prussian Army Corps, was under the command of the
Crown Prince, whose Chief of Staff was his " old and
trusty friend " Lieut-General von Blumenthal. Amongst
the officers appointed to the staff of this army was Count
Seckendorff, who afterwards became the Chamberlain
and the trusted friend and adviser of the Crown Princess.
The anxiety of the Crown Princess was acute, and all
her fears were poured out to her mother, to whom, on
July 22, she wrote :

Your very dear and kind letter was indeed a sunbeam in the
darkness of this sad time, for which I thank you from my heart.
The days seem like years, with this awful calamity hanging over
us — not one passes without many many tears being shed. Today
I parted from dear Uncle Ernest (who had only reached Berlin the
previous day from Fiume). We both broke down. Dearest Papa's
only brother. It seemed so dreadful. But one must not think of
this now. All one's energies and all one's courage are wanted to
meet the future and the worst that it may bring. All is still un-
decided as to our plans. Fritz commands the South Germans, the
armies of the Kings of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, besides the troops
of Baden, and a Prussian Army Corps (his own from Stettin). It

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

is a dreadful position for him, as the Bavarian and Swabian troops 1870
are so inefficient and undisciplined that they are of very little use
— their leaders are more a hindrance than otherwise, but the King
and the Generals could entrust this most difficult task to no one
but Fritz. He is looking ill, and the wear on his nerves is very
great; at times he is quite overwhelmed and sheds bitter tears,
but on the whole he has a clear idea of what he intends and the
greatest confidence in the feeling of the people.

I contradicted Bertie's speech energetically and was so glad to
do so.

I am very busy indeed, but feel pretty well — of course my
nerves excepted, which will not recover from such an upset in a
hurry. Pray read the Folks Zeltung and the Kolnuche Zeltung —
they will give you all the news.

Dear Uncle Ernest goes with Fritz.

I trust dear Alice will come here later. I think it would be
better. I have had no time to write to her. The enthusiasm is
grand and imposing. There is something so pure and elevated
about it — so sacred and calm and serious — that when I see our
finest and noblest men all joining and collecting round their aged
Sovereign, they seem to me to be indeed " The noble army of
martyrs ". How many will return ?

I am not afraid nor cast down, for I cannot but think that this
feeling must give an almost invincible force to our arms. We are
prepared for all sorts of reverses and misfortunes and to meet
them with courage and patience and try not to give way. Could
you and would you send me some old linen, lint and coarse poor
men's shirts, also some oiled silk? Perhaps the sisters would collect
some and send it to me — it will be used alike for friend and foe —
so it will in no way interfere with your neutrality.

I hope that I shall always be able to hear from you and
write to you, but of course I do not know. Could you not keep
a special messenger going between us and you? England's posi-
tion on the continent and her continental trade will suffer from
her neutrality, but I suppose you cannot help it. The French have
really behaved too ill, and surely they are playing a desperate
game. . . .

Baby (the Princess Sophie) is to be christened on Sunday at
i o'clock. How it makes me think of my darling Sigie, and long
for him back, and how I tremble for fear anything should happen

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 to one of the others in this fearful time. Pray thank dear Arthur,
dear Lenchen, Bertie and Louise for their kind letters — it was so
comforting and soothing to me to read them.

Wegner, Count Eulenberg, Count SeckendorfF, M. Schleinitz
and Major Mischke go with Fritz. His Staff is composed of
General Blumenthal, Colonel Gatberg, Majors Lenke and Hahnke
and a lot of South Germans — he will most likely go on Monday
or Tuesday. I dare not think of it. ...

The following day the Crown Prince returned to the
Neue Palais for the baptism of his "engaging little
daughter Sophie '*, which took place on the 24th " with
the traditional ceremonial and the utmost display of pomp
and parade ".1 On the 25th the Crown Princess wrote
to Queen Victoria :

. . . The Christening went off well, but was sad and serious ;
anxious faces and tearful eyes, and a gloom and foreshadowing
of all the misery in store spread a cloud over the ceremony, which
should have been one of gladness and thanksgiving.

My sweet little Sophie was very good and only cried a little
bit, but Waldy and Vicky cried and did not like it at all ; they
were frightened at the clergyman's voice and energetic gesticula-
tions, and Vicky kept sobbing, " Don't let the man hurt baby ".
The King said he could not hold the child, he felt too weak, so
the Queen had to hold her ; it was a general leave-taking, as I
shall see none of the family any more before they leave. Poor little
Sophie's first step in this world is not ushered in with any bright
omens, and her Mama's heart was heavy and weary in spite of the
beauty of the day, the sunshine and the flowers without

The feeling is very general here that England would have had it
in her power to prevent this awful war, had she in concert with
Russia, Austria and Italy, declared she would take arms against
the aggressor, and that her neutrality afforded France advantages
and us disadvantages.

France can buy English horses as her ships can reach England,
whereas ours cannot on account of the French fleet. Lord Gran-

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, July 23.
80

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

ville is supposed to take sides decidedly with the Emperor. God 1870
knows how it all may end I

Fritz and I took the Sacrament this morning ; he does not leave
today, but expects to do so tomorrow or the day after. I cannot
bear to think of it. ...

Early next morning, at half-past five, the Crown
Prince left the Neue Palais. That day he wrote in his
Diary :

. . . As my wife and I had agreed that, whenever my departure
was settled we would bid one another no formal farewell, I had told
her nothing yesterday of my start being suddenly fixed for this
morning and so spared her the actual final good-bye before the war
by giving her no explicit reason for my leaving at such an early
hour. Only when I was already on my way did my little daughter
Victoria, who saw me off crying and sobbing and would not let me
go, convey a line or two from me that told her how things stood.
My children, on the contrary, knew that I was bound for the scene
of action — but I must not let my thoughts dwell on those moments.

To her letter to Queen Victoria, written the previous
evening, the Crown Princess now added the postscript
(July 26) :

I sat up till late last night waiting for Fritz's return, and went
to sleep before he came. This morning before I woke he got up,
and when I asked where he was I was told he had gone back to
Berlin, and I found a slip of paper from him saying that he was
gone to the Army and had wished to spare me a leave-taking.
The thought was so kind, and yet now I feel as if my heart would
break ; he is gone without a kiss or a word of farewell, and I do
not know whether I shall ever see him again! I hardly know what
I am writing, as my head aches with crying and I cannot stop my
tears. My own darling Fritz — Heaven protect and watch over his
precious life! Oh that I could be with him and share all dangers,
fatigues and anxieties with him. How willingly would I change
places with any of his servants! . . .

To the Crown Princess's appeal in her letter of July 22
" for some old linen, lint and coarse poor men's shirts,

G 81

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 also some oiled silk " for the wounded. Queen Victoria,
with constitutional correctness, pointed out that it would
be difficult to send them ostensibly as it might be inter-
preted in an unfriendly light by France. On August 4
the Crown Princess replied :

I have just received your dear letter of the ist. I know how
difficult your position must be — you the Sovereign of a constitu-
tional country and a neutral power, I can quite understand that
it may be awkward for you to send me things for the wounded
ostensibly — though I should have imagined you could have sent
either to the Empress of the French, or to me — without appearing
partial. A wounded man has ceased to be an enemy, and only a
suffering human creature, entitled to everyone's help. I think the
International Society to which we belong holds this doctrine. I
hope I am only doing what you wish — in writing openly what I
hear and see and think. I only write as a private individual to you
as my dear Mama — at the same time thinking it may be agreeable
and useful to you to hear what is thought and said on this side of
the water from an unofficial source. I am looked upon with sus-
picious eyes, as England is supposed to lean to the other side, and
Lord Granville and Mr. Cardwell looked upon as French. All this
is indeed most trying to you, but your long routine, your firmness
and political experience will carry you through it all, I hope and
trust to the honour and glory of yourself and beloved England.
I see so much in the English press which confirms me. The French
have begun war in a very ugly way — bombarding an open town
(Saarbriick) — and bringing up three Divisions against a Battalion
of Infantry and a Cavalry Regiment, seventy of our men and two
of our officers are killed. This I suppose you know already.

I have a sprained hand (or rather wrist) so I write with con-
siderable difficulty and you must excuse my scrawl. I must end in
a great hurry. I have letters from my darling Fritz from Stuttgart
and Carlsruhe and Speyer. He says that the feeling among the
South Germans is so cordial that he finds no difference with the
Prussians, indeed feels quite at home with them ; his reception was
something quite extraordinary. Pray read Freiligrath's beautiful
Poem in the Folks Zeitung of yesterday.

Two days later, on August 6, a decisive German vic-
82

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

tory was won at Worth by the army commanded by the 1870
Crown Prince, who defeated the French army of the
Rhine under Marshal MacMahon. The victory followed
closely upon the first success of Weissenburg which, as
the Crown Prince noted in his Diary on August 9,

made much more impression on men's minds than that of the second
success reported immediately after the other. But Worth is a vic-
tory of historical significance, for, apart from its importance as a
military triumph, it is notable for the French having been beaten for
the first time since 1815 in a pitched battle. How wonderful that of
all others it was given to me, who could never have looked for such
a thing, to go straight into action in the first line.

The victory of Worth delighted the Crown Princess,
who wrote to Queen Victoria on August u :

You will I know not be angry with me for availing myself of
dear Marie Goltz's kindly lent hand to write you this letter, as I
am lying down to take a little rest, of which I feel the need. I
have this moment received your dear and kind letter of the 8th,
for which I hasten to send my tenderest thanks. I am touched and
delighted at seeing your true joy at my beloved Fritz's victory I
The children's Governor, Lieutenant O'Danne, has arrived here
this morning, despatched by Fritz, and bringing me the enclosed,
which I beg you to return to me. I am sure the description of the
Battle of Worth in Fritz's own hand will interest you ; it is so
modest and like his own dear self. Lt. O'Danne was present at the
battle and was fiill of admiration of Fritz's calmness during the
long hours that he commanded, for this fearful battle lasted twelve
hours. Lt. O'Danne says Fritz is well, and of course very busy
indeed.

You ask whether I have lost any friends or acquaintances.
Alas! one hears everyday of new ones! An old friend of Christian's,
Major SenfF, formerly in the same regiment as Christian, was torn
to pieces by a shell. Poor man, he was always full of joke and
fun.

Then last night I went to see poor old General Esebeck and his
wife, who have lost their second son, who leaves a wife just going

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 to be confined and a little child. They have just been married two
years and were very happy. The poor mother's grief was heartrend-
ing to see. Then a brother-in-law of Herr von Schweinitz's has
been badly wounded and also Lt. Miiller, my former Page. General
Bose, one of our ablest officers, is badly wounded in the foot.

We are hourly expecting to hear of another great and awful
battle, most likely not far from Metz, as the French seem to be
collecting all their forces for a great effort. The eagerness and
trembling with which we devour the telegrams is not to be told !
How thankful we shall be when this dreadful time is over and one
can once more live in peace.

260 wounded Prussians arrived at Berlin yesterday ; today a
train of wounded French has arrived. I must tell you, and you will
be glad to hear, that the captured and wounded French are every-
where treated with great kindness and consideration.

When I said the odds were fearfully against us, when the war
first broke out, I was of the opinion of most people, that the French
would have overran the Rhine before we could get our troops
ready. Fritz never expected he would be able to get his Army
together, as he thought the French would occupy the Palatinate,
Darmstadt and Baden, and prevent the troops from concentrating.
What their treatment of our towns would have been, we have seen
by their barbarous bombardment and burning of the inoffensive
town of Saarbrucken. We feared that our fertile provinces of the
Rhine would be devastated and the battles fought on the German
side. This was the pleasant prospect we contemplated three weeks
ago, but I never doubted what our success would be if we had
the chance of having our forces assembled. I was in Berlin yester-
day and visited the temporary hospital camp of wooden huts which
is being built with marvellous rapidity on the Kreuzberg, a very
healthy situation. The undertaking is directed by our best scientific
heads, and will I am sure be a success. They are draining the
ground, digging wells, making a temporary railway, laying on gas
and telegraph. It will be for the accommodation of 1600. It is
being done by the State, and the town, and a Committee to which
I contribute.

I afterwards went to the Town Hall to see the depot of linen
and hospital requisites, such as bandages, bedding and cloth. The
stuffs are bought by the afore-named Committee and made up,
either by a quantity of ladies who assemble there daily, or by the

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

wives of soldiers who receive payment for what they do. In the 1870
afternoon I visited my Victoria Bazaar, which is employed in the
same way and which will provide Darmstadt and Carlsruhe with
hospital linen. Each mark of sympathy on the part of England
gives pleasure and is thankfully acknowledged. Kind donations
of Manchester and Liverpool have been gratefully received and
joyously hailed. The misery and the suffering is immense, and will
be greater, but I must say, I do not think there is a female in the
country of whatever class she may be who does not do her utmost
to alleviate the sufferings of friend and foe, and contribute her
last penny towards doing so. It is a great labour of love which
comforts many an anxious and aching heart, while it occupies the
fevered brain.

I hope and trust to get permission to go and settle at Homburg
and get up a small hospital at my own expense. I have got a good
many things together for this purpose already, and different kinds
of gifts, which go a little way towards fitting up.

I was still very tired from yesterday's exertions and my sleep
and appetite are not always of the best, but on the whole I get on
very well, and my sweet little Sophie grows and improves and is
my comfort and pleasure.

The elder children do not understand much of what is going
on — in spite of seeing and hearing. Willy and Vicky, each in their
way, show much interest in the events of the day. . . .

The victory of Worth brought the Crown Prince
showers of congratulatory messages. On August 19 he
noted in his Diary :

... An extraordinary amount of praise has been lavished on
me, far more than I deserve. But is it not a strange thing that I, who
much preferred to earn recognition in works of peace,, am called
upon to win such blood-stained laurels ? In time to come may the
peaceful part of my efforts be all the more beneficent. Even from
England come tokens of appreciation for my victory, a thing that
pleases me infinitely. Thus, for instance, Lord Granville, in a
private letter to my wife, has strongly repudiated the notion that
his policy was guided by sympathy for France.1

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, p. 63.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 In her letter dated August 4 to Queen Victoria, the
Crown Princess had warmly applauded " Freiligrath's
beautiful poem ", and she was pleased and complimented
to learn from Queen Victoria, who wrote on August 17,
that it had been translated into English by Mr. Theodore
Martin. Three days later the Crown Princess, still im-
mersed in hospital duties, replied :

How beautifully Mr. Martin has translated Freiligrath's poem.
The article of the Daily Telegraph for which I thank you very
much is very nice indeed. I am so glad to think our papers do
Fritz justice as he deserves. I send you some photographs of the
boys which have just been done. I saw some more wounded this
morning. Fritz and the Queen are both for my going to Homburg,
therefore if the King allows, I shall go there soon. . . .

The excitement here yesterday in consequence of the news of
the battle on the i8th was very great, and most anxiously are we
expecting details, but I hear that Louis and his brothers are safe,
and I suppose the rest of our Princes are so. We are anxiously
expecting tidings from Paris. A revolution there does not seem so
imminent as it was, but I am very glad I am not in the Empress's
position; the Emperor's, too, must be a dreadful one. How well I
remember this time 15 years ago; who would have thought then
that the Emperor would take such an end! But how is a govern-
ment to be carried on for the good of a nation, when there is such
awful corruption and bribery amongst all the servants of State,
for the Emperor has hardly a person about him, who is respectable.
How ill Benedetti, Gramont, Ollivier and Lebceuf have served
him, for it is mainly owing to them that he has got into this
scrape. Ever since the Emperor's health has been failing, the pres-
tige of his genius has been waning and he has made one blunder
after another. It is a melancholy history.

All attention was now concentrated upon the two
French armies under Marshal Bazaine and Marshal Mac-
Mahon respectively. The first, beleaguered in Metz, was
now surrounded by the Germans, and the second, which
the Emperor Napoleon had joined, had an army of a
86

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

quarter of a million on its track. Much controversy mean- 1870
while had raged over the question as to which of the armies
— the French or the German — was the better armed.
The Germans were armed, as in the campaigns of 1864
and 1866, with the needle-gun, but the French were armed
with the breech-loading Chassepot rifle. The Crown
Princess's views on this and on other war items may be
gathered from her letter to Queen Victoria on August 26 :

We hear fresh distressing news every day ; it would be no use
my telling you the names of all the unhappy victims as you do
not know them. To us all it is most melancholy as they were our
friends, and we are surrounded by their mourning relatives. The
one that is the greatest loss personally to us, is Herr von Jasmund,
Fritz's former Aide-de-Camp, with whom he was very intimate.
He has left his poor little wife behind with a child of two years
old. He was a most devoted, attached, trustworthy and excellent
creature. It is too sad. Langenbeck, whom you remember, has
also lost his eldest son. Countess Alvensleben, Marianne's Grande
Maitresse, has lost both her sons. I could tell you endless tidings
of woel The exasperation against the French grows with every
day, which is but natural, seeing that it is they who brought on
this war, and not we who would have it, that we are obliged
to sacrifice almost all the most valuable lives in the country to
resist their overbearing and unjust interference. That they feel
this themselves I had a new proof of today. Baron Perglas, the
Bavarian Minister, told me that upon the Duke of Gramont being
interpellated about bringing on the war so unjustifiably, and get-
ting the French into such a scrape, said : " La guerre n'e*tait pas
inevitable, il y avait vingt manieres d'arranger cette affaire. Mais
j*ai demande* a Lebceuf etes-vous pr£t? il m*a repondu archi-
pre"t." How doubly wrong it was of the Ministers to push the
Emperor into such a disaster. Of course I feel the greatest pity for
thousands of innocent French who are of course not answerable
for their Government. I think that Fritz and I feel heartily sorry
for them ; but in the public at large there is very little commisera-
tion of course. They will never own themselves in the wrong, and
go on making the most outrageous inventions.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 I had a letter today from Fritz dated the i8th, and yesterday one
of his servants arrived. Fritz had been to see the King at Pont-a-
Mousson and is now continuing his march on the route to Paris.
I have not the slightest idea whether there will be another bloody
battle or not. I should fear there would be one more before Paris,
and perhaps another desperate attempt of the French to leave Metz.
Their far-famed Army is no doubt very good, but their men not
to be compared to ours. Their Chassepots are far better than our
needle-guns and give them an advantage ; their mitrailleuses are
very destructive, but are unable to dismay our brave soldiers. . . .
"We are all well, and of course my nerves often feel very shaken,
as everyone's must, particularly when I have been seeing the
unfortunate mourners and sufferers. It is so kind of you all to
work so much for the wounded and take so much interest in them.
I think there is no one that would not wish to help them. In
Berlin and Potsdam they are really very well off, but all along the
Rhine we hear very different accounts. Alas! dear Marie Goltz
is not going with me. How much I shall miss her! Her husband
and brothers are well however. I trust the neutral Powers will not
interfere with us as to the terms of peace ; they did not prevent
the war, nor help us to fight it, so I trust they will let us make
our own terms, and not intercede in favour of the aggressor. This
would be a great misfortune in more than one point of view, and
we are delighted to see by the Times that it is not likely.

I must end here, my beloved Mama, kissing your dear hand
many times and thanking you most tenderly for your dear letter
which was such a pleasure to receive. On this dear day I think of
former happy years when all was unbroken and unclouded peace
and happiness — and none of us knew what sorrows, trials and
anxieties were in store for us! How the world has changed since
then! — and yet if one examines carefully one can trace the threads
of present evils far back, and many words of dear Papa's come
back to me now, and I see how right he was and how true all he
said. Darling Papa, I think of him with greater yearning as the
time goes on. Oh, why cannot he be here to help us all on —
often one feels weary and tired, and I suppose he felt so too some-
times— so we dare not grudge him the blessed rest of the just
that have run their course and fought a good fight, but remember
him with loving, grateful, yet aching hearts, as he has left a blank,
never, never to be filled up in this life.
88

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

Will you please give my love to all the dear Geschwister, in 1870
particular Bertie and Alix. I am sure dear Bertie must envy Fritz
who has such a trying, but such a useful life. I had rather see
him serve his country than sit by my side, though Heaven knows
how wretched it is to be so much alone as I am and to be in
perpetual anxiety. I hope you are well and that all this agitation
does not affect you too much.

Meanwhile, the Crown Princess's efforts to render
the German hospital system more efficient had met with
little support, or even approval, from the authorities.
" My wife ", wrote the Crown Prince in his Diary on
August 23, " is going to Homburg with the object of
establishing a model hospital there and inspecting those
on the Rhine, which are in a sad state. In Berlin and
Potsdam all her endeavours and offers of help in the
matter of tending the sick were contemptuously rejected,
presumably on account of the anti-British feeling!" Such
was the opposition with which the Princess had to contend
even in so necessary a matter as the provision of ade-
quate nursing services for the wounded!

On September i there came for Prussia the crown-
ing victory of Sedan, where the Emperor Napoleon and
MacMahon's army of 120,000 men were surrounded and
defeated. The Emperor surrendered next day and was
sent to "Wilhelmshohe in CasseL In Paris the news
brought about a revolution, which replaced the imperial
regime by a Republic, and compelled the Empress Eugenie
to fly to England. The news surprised and excited the
Princess, who wrote to Queen Victoria on September 6 :

. . . What astounding news! really I could hardly believe my
ears when I heard it — here the excitement and delight of the people
knew no bounds.

Poor Emperor, his career has ended, and he brought his fall
upon himself, and one cannot but pity him, especially for having

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 been the unhappy cause of so much bloodshed and so much woe
which never never can be cured! So many hearths made dismal,
so many happy homes miserable, so many hearts broken, and above
all so many unfortunate men groaning in untold suffering! Un-
happy Emperor, he has all this to answer for, and yet he is a kind-
hearted and feeling man! He has done the best thing he could for
himself under the circumstances; he is sure of the most chivalrous
and generous treatment at the hands of the King, and he has of
his own free-will surrendered to his equal, which is not so humiliat-
ing as being driven from throne and country by an infuriated
populace. Such a downfall is a melancholy thing, but it is meant
to teach deep lessons. May we all learn what frivolity, conceit and
immorality lead to! The French people have trusted in their own
excellence, have completely deceived themselves. Where is their
army ? Where are their statesmen ? They despised and hated the
Germans, whom they considered it quite lawful to insult. How
they have been punished! Whether the war be at an end, or no,
we do not know, having had no letters or details since these last
events, but as there is no French Army left I do not see with
whom we are to fight ? The march to Paris is continued, and what
difficulties our Army will have to encounter there I do not the
least know. It would be grievous for Art's sake for that beautiful
capital to suffer. I trust it will not come to that. Whether the
Republic will be inclined to make peace who can tell ? I fear not.
What has become of the Empress and Prince Imperial we have
not heard, poor things! I hope they are in safety — they will most
likely never see their lovely Paris again! When I think of '48 and
*55, and even of last December, when I last saw the Emperor and
Empress, it seems like a dream. But even then everyone felt that
the Empire was standing as it were on a barrel of gunpowder, and
that ilie least spark would set fire to the whole thing, and no
wonder that with such triflers as the Due de Gramont and MM.
Ollivier and Benedetti the conflagration soon began. Had the
Emperor been his former self and held the reins of Government
tightly it would perhaps not have happened ; but his health and
energy are gone — he had grown apathetic and incapable of direct-
ing matters himself, and as despotism always falls his reign has
ended — more like the bursting of a soap bubble than the fall of a
mighty monument, which buries all beneath its ruins! What a
retribution it seems for the bloody drama of Mexico and for the

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

treatment of the Orleans! These latter have lost all sympathy in 1870
Germany since the abominable letter of Prince de Joinville exciting
the populace to defend themselves and get rid of the enemy — by
murdering the German soldiers in cold blood! I think it too bad!
Voices are heard everywhere in all classes — in defence of Germany
regaining her old provinces of Elsass and Lothringen. I cannot
say I think it a good thing, but I do not see how the Government
are to resist the resolute determination of the German nation to
wrest them back at all hazards 1 I have been to Frankfurt today,
over the hospitals and seeing the different notabilities — everybody
is most patriotic.

"We have now no less than 120,000 French prisoners in Ger-
many! Is it not marvellous? Add to that more tian fifty Generals
and the Sovereign himself! And even now the French will not
believe that they have been really and fairly defeated. They attri-
bute it all to chance and accident, and denied each of our victories.
Dear Alice was with me for a day. I think she is really very-
well and strong on the whole and does a great deal. I do hope
Louis will soon be able to return to her! I think my being here
is of some slight use and does good. I am able to set much to rights,
but it is hard work for her, with the darling baby to care for ;
however, I manage to get on very well on the whole — not staying
too long in the bad air of the hospitals. I am having a hut built
at my own expense and the large barracks done up, also at my
expense and by my directions. It was in too disgraceful a state to
remain as it was. The hospitals in the villages around which I
visit of an afternoon are very bad — mostly the people are so
tenderly kind to the wounded, but do not understand how to take
care of them and are dirty beyond description. I often feel quite
sick with disgust, and yet looking after it is the only way to
improve an establishment of this kind. . . .

Sept. jtL

During these last days I have so often felt reminded of passages
in Shakespeare in Henry V. and Richard EL There are passages
which apply wonderfully to the present extraordinary state of
things.

I am sorry for poor General Failly, whom I knew, and who
was one of the better sort of French Generals. As for Bazaine and
Palikao, I think them wretches, but Bazaine is a capital soldier.
Metz and Strassburg are too dreadful to think of. The Germans

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 grieve at having to bombard Strassburg, but it cannot be avoided.
Metz cannot hold out very long and the conditions within its walls
must be too awful. Our wounded who have come from there
say they have been very kindly treated. Poor Lothar Hohenthal,
Valerie's youngest brother is also killed ! Poor young man, he was
hardly twenty, very handsome and full of promise. I have known
him ever since he was a little boy. You are very kind to express
your sympathy for all the poor bereaved families of my acquaint-
ance. Whenever I have an opportunity I will say so. All this
misery draws hearts closer together and brings together those who
in happy and quiet days would have passed one another by without
taking any notice. The feeling of belonging to one great nation
for the first time obliterates all feeling of north, south, high and
low — all particularism — this I must say is very delicious to experi-
ence— simplifies all things and gives a new impetus to all exertions
— poor Germany, she has dearly bought her unity and independence
with the blood of her sons. It is a great satisfaction to me to see
how Prussian Wesen^ discipline, habits, etc., is now appreciated
and seen in its true light, its superiority acknowledged with pleasure
and pride, instead of jealousy, fear, scorn, and hatred. We owe
to Frederick the Great and his father, to Scharnhorst, Stein and
Hardenberg, what we are, and we say it with gratitude and not
vainglory or conceit. We are worthy of England's sympathy and
approbation and feel sure that it will not long be withheld from us.

Fritz writes that he has seen many letters which have been
seized — from one French officer to another, giving the most awful
description of the French Army as regards honesty and morality.
The stealing and plundering that goes on is incredible, not only
among the Turkos* The Empress did well and rightly in giving
up the Crown Jewels of her own accord before there was any
necessity. Queen Isabella behaved very differently.

What will Bertie and Alix say to all these marvellous events!
When I think of the Emperor and Empress in the zenith of their
glory — in '55 — and at the time of the Exhibition when all the
Sovereigns of Europe paid them their Court, and they were so
amiable and courteous to all. It seems a curious contrast! Gay
and charming Paris! Our poverty, our dull towns, our plodding,
hardworking, serious life has made us strong and determined — is
wholesome for us. I should grieve were we to imitate Paris and
be so taken up with pleasure that no time was left for self-examina-

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

tion and serious thought. Ancient history teaches the same lesson 1870
as modern history — a hard and stern one for those who have to
learn it by sad experience. The poor Emperor has leisure now to
study it.

This letter reflects to a singular degree the German
opinion of the time — the lack of sympathy with Napoleon,
the probability of a rapid end to the war and, as a condi-
tion of peace, the restitution to Germany of the provinces
of Alsace and Lorraine. Above all, there was the desire
that German unity should be proclaimed in no uncertain
manner, an opinion which the Crown Prince was urg-
ing vigorously in the King's Council. Bismarck's own
opinion of the Crown Prince's activity at this period may
be gauged from the following extracts :

The initiative for any change in the conduct of the war did not
as a rule emanate from the King, but from the staff of the army or
from that of the Crown Prince, who was the general in command.
That this circle was open to English views if presented in a friendly
manner was only natural ; the Crown Princess, Moltke's late wife,
the wife of Count Blumenthal, chief of the staff, and afterwards
Field-Marshal, and the wife of von Gottberg, the staff officer next
in influence, were all Englishwomen.1

With regard to Alsace and Lorraine the Crown Prince's
opinion was most definite.

The annexation of Alsace [he wrote in his Diary on Sept-
ember 12-14] an^ perhaps of a part of Lorraine, is surely well
earned by the sacrifices Germany has made. I would have these
provinces administered separately, simply as Imperial territories, in
the name of the Empire, by that time we hope restored, and eventu-
ally in that of the Bund, without giving them a dynasty and placing
them under any reigning house. . . . The immediate concern is to
detach Alsace from the great corporate body of France, yet at the
same time to make the country feel that it is becoming a member
of another equally great state, and is not condemned to have to

1 Butler's Bismarck, p. 124.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 make one of the little petty states of Germany. Count Bismarck
seems to me to entertain so far no specially wild-cat plans ; on the
contrary, he expressed himself, while we were still at Rheims, in
answer to my leading questions, rather cautiously than otherwise.

Meanwhile, in spite of all opposition, the Crown
Princess had been successful in organising better hospital
conditions at Homburg, and it was from here that she
wrote to Queen Victoria on September 17 :

. . . The army is marching onward towards Paris. I hope and
trust there will be nothing very awful. I do not think they appre-
hend very formidable resistance, but I live in dread of something
happening as at Laon. . . .

Our hospital arrangements are getting on now nicely, and in
another fortnight I trust the place will look very different and the
poor creatures be far more comfortable. To overcome the pre-
judice of doctors and patients against fresh air is really almost
impossible. We have not one nurse or dresser here yet, only people
from the town, who are dirty, ignorant and useless in the extreme,
but we have sent for some better help which we shall have soon.
Dr. Schroeder and Dr. Doetz are excellent — but the other doctors
are really only mischievous, stupid, old things — many a poor
wretch might have been saved if they had understood their work.
Prof. Schillbach — from Jena — we got over and he has performed
many operations, also General Arzt Koch, from Cassel, who tried
to set things right a little, as the organisation was really too
lamentable.

The Crown Prince's view of his wife's activities is
recorded in his Diary for September 10 and n.

Captain von Dresky [he noted] arrived with letters from my
wife at Homburg and other news from home. It is with unfeigned
pleasure that I learn from various sources that my wife's presence
in the hospitals at Homburg, Frankfort and in the Rhine province
is properly appreciated, and also that officials and physicians declare
that they are astonished at the wide range of her knowledge. Cer-
tainly I would have looked for nothing else, yet it is with unspeak-
able satisfaction that I hear the facts acknowledged, for it is high
time my wife should win the grateful recognition she has long

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

deserved. At this moment she is building a hospital at Homburg at 1870
her own expense, in order to see her own special principles brought
into operation.

After the crowning French disaster at Sedan the
German armies had little resistance to contend with in
the open field and on September 19 they completely sur-
rounded Paris, which prepared for a stubborn defence.
Meanwhile, the Empress Eugenie had arrived in England
as a refugee. The news of her arrival awoke in the Crown
Princess vivid memories of her own visit to France in
1855.

All you say [she wrote from Homburg on September 24, 1870]
in your letter is so true. Dear Papa was so right about the Emperor
Napoleon. Now he is in sorrow I do not like to abuse him, he has
reaped what he has sown, he was the corrupter of all Europe — all
Europe paid him their court, were dazzled by the splendour of his
capital, and his own magnificence, his politics were bad, dishonest
and dangerous, and yet he was not a wicked man — like the old King
of Hanover, or the late King of Naples. He did many a kind and
generous action, and the Empress even more than he did, so that
one is disgusted at the violence and spite of the Parisians who
seem hardly to be able to find indignities enough to heap on the
heads of this luckless pair. The Imperial regime has enough to
answer for, besides all the blood that has now been spilt, and this
must be so miserable a feeling for the Emperor and Empress that
I pity them. Besides they seem to be deprived of means (to their
honour be it said).

The letter you sent me about the escape of the poor Empress
was very interesting. What a shame that no French gentleman
accompanied her! Is it not a sign of how the French have degener-
ated that now in the hour of danger and tribulation they go on
fabricating lies, which they believe in — a French victory at Toul,
another before the walls of Paris, etc.? Not until Paris is taken
will they see how matters stand and come to reasonable terms,
and I do not see how the King can think of peace before.

A most unpleasant piece of intelligence has reached me. Fritz's
letters to me of the ist and 2nd (which I always wondered at not

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 receiving) have fallen into the hands of the French, so that I may
have the pleasure of seeing them in some distorted form in the
French newspapers. He is much annoyed, as he wrote down the
conversation of the King and the Emperor, and different other
most interesting details. Another thing also puts me out immensely,
that the King after having approved my coming here, now is
angry and wishes me to go back to Berlin, which I cannot do,
as all the hospital arrangements depend on my being here —
and are just beginning to do nicely. Is it not annoying and
provoking? I never make a plan that is not crossed by the King
or Queen, and they invariably disapprove of what I do — it is very
disheartening.

On the previous day, September 23, the French army
at Toul had surrendered, and on the 2yth Strassburg
followed suit. The Crown Princess, meanwhile, had been
as active as ever to alleviate the suffering of the wounded
and to improve the hospital service, and on September
30 she wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I returned yesterday evening from a most fatiguing
tourne*e to Wiesbaden, Bieberich, Bingen, Bingerbriick, Rudesheim
and Mayence. At all these places I went over the hospitals,
which is as trying to one's nerves as possible, besides seeing
the authorities, etc. The weather was beautiful, the lovely Rhine
looked its best, and had not one such a load of anxiety and
worry, and so much business, I should have really enjoyed the tour
through this enchanting country. Some hospital arrangements
were good, but very few, others tolerable and the rest wretched,
dirty and ill managed. Everywhere the population is doing to the
utmost of its power and abilities and means to tend the sick and
wounded and give them every comfort, but it is often very ill
done, and one has many a painful impression. I saw many wounded
French officers at Mayence. I went to see the French prisoners,
5,000 of them in a Camp together, a curious sight. They express
themselves very gratefully and seem to like being well cared for
and not having any more fighting to do.

I have letters from Fritz up to the 23rd. He is well and at
Versailles. Paris will keep them some time yet, I fear.

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

Four days later (October 5) the Crown Prince noted 1870
in his Diary :

With regard to the hospital establishments on the Rhine and at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, to which my wife devotes especial atten-
tion, I hear these spoken of with grateful appreciation. It gives me
infinite pleasure to hear in all quarters repeated expressions of the
high respect my wife's quiet but strong and efficient activity evokes.
In Homburg she has created a perfect model hospital, which it is to
be hoped will soon find imitations. I communicated to His Majesty
much of what I had learned, but without hearing one word of com-
mendation in reply.

His last sentence gives a little idea of the opposition
even in the highest quarters to the philanthropic services
of the Crown Princess.

On October 27, the fortress of Metz and Marshal
Bazaine's whole army of over 170,000 men capitulated,
after a seventy days' siege. This was the fourth French
army to be captured in two months, and a German force
of 200,000 was thus set free to cope effectively with
the new French armies which were being raised by
the energy of Gambetta to relieve Paris. The German
victories brought deserved honours to many in the higher
commands, and the Crown Prince was rewarded for his
services by being created a Field-Marshal, an honour
which was also conferred upon Prince Frederick Charles.
Four days later (October 31) the Crown Princess wrote :

I have not written since the great news of the capitulation of
Metz. If one could only hope that Paris would surrender before
the awful alternative of a bombardment or famine is forced upon
usl There is no use in holding out any longer — it will not give
France back her military glory that has faded away — it will only
bring endless and horrible misery on many thousands of innocent
beings. I believe it is principally owing to General Trochu that
they will not give in, and he is sacrificing the inhabitants to his
own personal vanity. The Empress is at Wilhelmshohe, but returns
H 97

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 to England today or tomorrow, I hear. Fritz has received the
rank of Field-Marshal, and Fritz Carl also — it is the first time that
a Prince of this House has ever received this title! I think it is well
deserved, I must say. The Queen is gone to Frankfort today to
visit the Grand Duke of Hesse and all the family, also the Duchess
of Hamilton. ... I hear nearly every day from Fritz — he is well
but much distressed at the thought of the war being prolonged
and of the siege of Paris.

Waldy has quite recovered from his illness and is looking very
well again, though thin. The others are all well. How is dear
Leopold ? I have heard nothing about him for so long ?

The three captive Marshals are going to be sent to Cassel —
so the Emperor at least will have company. It does seem so extra-
ordinary to think of our having taken the French Army wholesale!

The Times is so Interesting that we are always impatient for it
to arrive! The irritation against England is still very great and
people are very ungracious to all English. I think it so unjust and
it makes me very unhappy. I cannot help getting violent on the
subject and, when I hear disparaging remarks made, giving them
back with a vehemence not altogether wise. It makes me feel
spiteful and savage and upsets me altogether. I am obliged to
comfort myself with the reflection that it is but legitimate for the
Germans to be in a state of excitement unlike themselves, which
makes them a little unfair, considering how their existence was at
stake when the war was so wrongly forced upon them. Of course
all this is more unpleasant for me than for anyone.

German irritation with England's neutrality indeed
continued to grow, and a week later, on November 7,
the Crown Princess again voiced her distress at the
Anglo-German tension.

. . . What you say about the feeling between Germany and
England [she wrote to her mother] is but too true! It makes my
heart sick! There is nothing for it but patience. I know it will not
last. In Germany as soon as people's passions and nerves setde
and calm down a bit and they have time, which at present they
have not, to examine what their imaginary grievance against
England is> they will see how puerile are the reasons which have
made them so angry and how small are the facts which, so greatly

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

exaggerated, exasperated them so much. I am sure they will be 1870
heartily ashamed of their injustice, and grateful for England's kind
and cordial sympathy — her grand and magnificent charity — and
her masterly descriptions of our deeds in her incomparable press,
the first press of the world. Much can be done even now, I am
sure, to clear up misunderstandings and explain away difficulties.
It will never do to blunder away at one another till we have got
either into a serious quarrel, or a settled dislike for which the whole
world will suffer. Those, as you so justly and truly say, who are

devoted as I am heart and soul to both beloved countries to the

cause of liberty and culture — of which they are the two main
supports — have many a bitter moment to go through at present.
But the case is not hopeless. If England will be forbearing with
her excited sister who has no time to think while she is fighting,
I know she will see reason and good feeling return. The cause of
anger is really this : when the war broke out Germany, who had
to rush into armour unprepared, of course thought herself in the
greatest danger, and turned to England, her only friend, for help.
England had other considerations — preferred being a spectator to
an actor, probably did not think the danger so imminent for
Germany as the latter did herself— in short determined to remain
neutral. A cry of disappointment and indignation burst forth from
Germany— and people said " If we are annihilated England will
be the cause. She knows and acknowledges that we have been
unfairly and unjustly attacked, and yet she will quietly see us go to
the bottom without stirring a little finger to help us! If she had
but spoken out loud— to our neighbour who has so suddenly turned
our enemy — if she had but lifted up her voice — and threatened
to strike him that disturbed the peace of Europe, France would
never have dared to make war and all these lives would have been
saved. England hat die Fettsucht— ist zu faul urn sich zu riihren
und lasst uns lieber zu Grunde gehen als Frankreich ein ernstes
Wort zu sagen." l This is the grievance, and it must take time
before the feeling of anger will wear out, and the kindly offices
England has unceasingly offered since be acknowledged and
appreciated.

I think in the main grievance Germany is right and her feeling

1 England is growing fat— is too lazy to stir herself and prefers
to let us be ruined rather than say a stern word to France.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 legitimate, for in my mind I cannot help thinking England could
have and should have prevented the war — by a rebuke and a
threat — to the party who was the aggressor. But where Germany
is altogether wrong is in supposing England hung back from a
love of the French and jealousy of ourselves — that Lord Granville
was French, and the laws of neutrality interpreted to our detriment
and France's advantage; and many minor facts brought up against
England were exaggerated and distorted so as to create spite
and suspicion and all manner of unkindly feelings — now vented
on inoffensive and kindly intentioned Englishmen wherever they
appear. The misfortune is that our official representatives are
neither of them quite fitted for, nor up to, their position, viz.
Bernstorff and Lord Augustus (Loftus). Each though well inten-
tioned has bungled and made b£vue$ with mischievous conse-
quences, /fa great German Empire does come out of the present
war, then neither of these persons ought to remain. A charge of
such immense importance ought to be confided to the very best
heads and hands both countries can produce, so that both be
worthily represented. I am sure nothing would set matters straight
sooner. Pray excuse my openness.

I find I have not yet thanked you for the pretty and interesting
letter from Mr. Haig! What a contrast in the lives your children
have been leading during the last three months! The anxiety, ex-
citement and business Alice and I have been in — and Affie — over
the sea — in utter ignorance of what is going on in the old world I
I hope and trust we shall all meet next year!

In the meantime, two great questions were perturbing
the King of Prussia and his military advisers, among
whom were pre-eminent the Crown Prince, Prince
Frederick Charles, and Bismarck. The most immediate
question was the problem of how the war might be most
quickly finished; the second, and perhaps a not less
important question, was the future of Germany. With
regard to the first, although the regular French armies
had been decisively beaten, Paris, the heart of France,
still successfully resisted the siege which had already been
in operation a month. Elsewhere in France new levies
100

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

were being raised under the inspiration of Gambetta, and 1870
many were the Frencfahopes that soon these armies might
combine to raise the siege of Paris. Hence, all the efforts
of the German high command were now directed to the
speedy reduction of Paris and to the smashing of the
new armies as and when they were ready. From the
first, however, there appeared to be some dissension
among the German staff as to the means by which Paris
should be subdued. Bismarck and many of the older
soldiers, such as Roon, favoured a bombardment. Others,
thinking possibly of the artistic glories of Paris and the
lives of the innocent caged within its gates, opposed a
bombardment as inhuman, and preferred the weapons of
starvation and disease. The Crown Prince's attitude is
expressed in his Diary, where on October 22 he notes :

Today the firstworkswere begun for building the siege batteries.
Though I have ordered the preparations for a siege to be carried
out with the greatest energy and all possible judgment, I am still in
hopes that Paris will be forced simply and solely by hunger to open
her gates to us, and that many lives will thus be spared to us.1

Four days later he noted (October 26) :

All persons in authority, I at the head of them, are at one in
this, that we must use every endeavour to force Paris to surrender
by hunger alone ; General von Moltke is in full agreement with
me as to this.2

Efforts were now made to secure an armistice, but the
mission of M. Thiers to the German headquarters proved
a complete failure.

So now [as the Crown Prince recorded on November 6] no
choice is left to us but to take Paris; all the same I still hold
by my policy of starving the city out, for this procedure, cruel

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, p. 165.
2 IML p. 169.

IOI

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 though it seems, will spare more lives than a regular siege and
storming of the city would cost us. . . ." 1

Bismarck, however, was " extremely desirous of seeing
the bombardment begin immediately, in order to hasten
the capitulation ",2 and in this view he was supported by
public opinion in Berlin.

The Crown Princess naturally echoed her husband's
views, and wrote to her mother on November 26, 1870 :

Many most affectionate thanks for your dear letter of the 2ist,
and for the kind and affectionate words you write, which are very
precious to me! Fritz writes from Versailles that he does see a
chance of the Russian question being settled amicably and satis-
factorily.3 What a blessing it would be. Fritz gets abused here
for not hastening the bombardment, but he does all he can to put
it off, hoping it will become unnecessary. Moltke and Blumenthal
are of his opinion, also General v. Falkenstein whom I saw
yesterday, but the public want the excitement of hearing of a
bombardment.

In Berlin the cry for the bombardment now grew
fiercer, and on all sides the Crown Prince and Princess
were attacked and abused as interfering with the just
conduct of the war.

Apparently [recorded the Crown Prince on November 28] 4
it is becoming a perfect mania in Berlin, this eagerness for the
bombardment of Paris, and I even hear that Countess Bismarck-
Schonhausen points me out to all and sundry as more particularly
the guilty cause of its postponement. And she is quite right, for
above all things I do not wish fire to be opened till in the opinion

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick^ p. 181.

2 Hid. pp. 200-201.

3 On October 31 Russia repudiated the clauses of the Treaty
of 1856 which ensured the neutralisation of the Black Sea. The
Conference of London which followed in January 1871 ratified
the abrogation.

* Ibid. pp. 202-203.
IO2

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

of professional gunners and experts the necessary ammunition each 1870
single siege gun requires for an effective uninterrupted bombard-
ment is there on the spot. If that were all, we could have begun
firing long ago, but we should very soon have had to stop and have
gained nothing by it but a ludicrous failure. ... To my great
satisfaction I hear from home that General of Infantry von Falken-
stein shares my views on this question.

For the time being the Crown Prince won his point,
and it was not until another month had passed that Paris
was subjected to the torture of bombardment.

Meanwhile, a second great question had been troubling
the leaders of Germany — the question of the future con-
stitution of their state. All the eminent leaders, including
Bismarck and the Crown Prince, were agreed that this
was the moment in which to forge the new Germany ;
one man alone dissented — he who was to become the
first Emperor of the new state, the veteran King William.
He, as King of Prussia, was content with the status quo.
German unity, he agreed, demanded something more, but
he could think of no title more dignified than that of
King, while the Crown Prince, Bismarck and the others
favoured the creation of an Empire with William, of
course, as its Emperor. On October 13 the Crown Prince
recorded in his Diary :

The imperial question is now given serious prominence by
Count Bismarck ; in fact he told me himself that in 1866 it was a
mistake on his part to have treated the idea with indifference ; at
the same time he had never dreamt the desire for the Imperial
Crown would be so strong as it is now among the German people.
. . . Count Bismarck raises the difficulty that supposing the
Imperial dignity — which I should like to see made hereditary —
transferred to our House, the style of our Court would likewise
be changed and the development of greater splendour of circum-
stance follow as a necessary consequence. However, it greatly

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 relieved his mind when I explained to him how in my opinion that
was the very time when the old Brandenburg simplicity must be
more thoroughly observed than is the case at the Royal Court of
today.1

Eleven days later he notes : 2

I cannot help myself at this crisis from thinking a great deal of
the plans my late father-in-law (the Prince Consort) as also the
late King (Leopold I.) of the Belgians, in conjunction with old
Baron von Stockmar, entertained for a united Germany under a
monarchical head. God so willed that those men should conceive
the notion of a free German Imperial State, that in the true sense
of the word should march at the forefront of civilisation and be in
a position to develop and bring to bear all noble ideals of the
modern world, so that through German influence the rest of the
world should be humanised, manners ennobled and people diverted
from those frivolous French tendencies. . . . Once we Germans
were recognised as honest champions of such convictions an
alliance might well be attained with England, Belgium, Holland,
Denmark and Switzerland against Russia and France, and thereby
peace be assured for many a day. Then in course of time the way
would be paved for an understanding with France and thus bring
about the utilisation of rich resources in the domain of Science, Art
and Commerce, to the reciprocal advantage of both nations.

Great was the joy of the Crown Prince when he learnt
on December 2 that the youthful King Ludwig of Bavaria
at Bismarck's suggestion had written to King William
begging him to assume the Imperial title. The next day
the Crown Prince noted in his Diary :

Today, one I have for so many years held in honour and affec-
tion as my sister's birthday, has acquired a special importance for
our House and country from the fact that the King of Bavaria, in
an official communication in his own hand to our King, has begged
him to assume the Imperial dignity. . . . The gist was something
to this effect, that now the German Confederation had been restored,

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, pp. 155-156.

2 Ibid. p. 168.
104

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

it seemed to King Ludwig to be only right that it in turn should 1870
further develop into the old-time Empire with the Emperor at its
head, and that, if His Majesty showed himself disposed to adopt the
idea, he was ready to invite the German Princes and Free Cities,
whom he had informed of this step, to offer him the Imperial Crown.
The contents of this letter put His Majesty quite beside himself
with displeasure and took him altogether aback ; so he seems to
have no inkling that the draft of it went from here to Munich. The
King held that the matter came just at the most inopportune time
possible, as he looked upon our prospects at the moment as very
black and our position highly perilous. Count Bismarck replied
that the election of the Emperor had nothing to do with the fight-
ing now going on, but was rather a victory in itself and a con-
sequence of the victories won up to the present, and that, even if
we were driven back to the Meuse, the question was distinct from
military incidents and a matter of simple right. But the King was
not going to change his mind today and saw in " Emperor and
Empire " simply a cross for himself to bear and for the Prussian
Kingdom generally! After leaving the King's room, Count Bis-
marck and I wrung each other's hand, without saying much — for
we felt that the decision was made and that from today " Emperor
and Empire " were restored beyond possibility of recall.

Only for the evening of his days will my father probably enjoy
its honours ; but on me and mine devolves the task of setting our
hands in true German fashion to the completion of the mighty
edifice, and that on principles consonant with these modern times
and free from prejudice and prepossessions.1

On December 10 the Reichstag included the words
"Emperor" and "Empire" in the text of the new
German Constitution. The German Empire was in being.
How much of the credit for this should be attributed to
the Crown Prince and how much to Bismarck is a point
that will no doubt be eventually decided by history, but
there is no doubt that it was the Crown Prince who per-
suaded Bismarck to take the decisive step. Prince Billow,
in a book on German politics published in 1913, confesses

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, p. 210.

105

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 that the idea of a united Germany emanated originally
from the Liberal party, but adds that it required the Con-
servative party, or rather Bismarck, to carry it out. It
was not, however, from the Liberal party alone that
the Crown Prince derived his ideas, because the Prince
Consort had often explained to him his conception of a
German Empire. On December 14 the Crown Prince
noted in his Diary :

My thoughts are busied in a very special way today with my
beloved, never-to-be-forgotten father-in-law, who this day nine
years ago was taken from us. Had he lived, much would have gone
differently and turned out differently in the development of the
world's history , above all it would have been a subject of con-
gratulation in his case if only he could have witnessed the restora-
tion of the Empire, the complicated questions involved in which so
often formed the subject of his talks with me. In particular, I recall
perfectly a conversation we had during a stroll in the gardens of
Buckingham Palace, in which he more especially stressed the point
that we Prussians would have to give up this idea of playing a
decisive role without assistance from Germany. His notion was
not that of gaining by force of arms the ends the attainment of
which was hindered by the stupidity of the Princes and the narrow-
mindedness of the nation; but indeed no one in the year 1856,
when peace at any price was in fashion, could have imagined that
a time would ever come for such a magnificent and puissant re-
vival of the manly spirit of Germany as we witness at the present
moment. What a great mind like that of the enlightened Prince
Consort wished and worked for can only gradually come to matur-
ity ; his blessing will not fail to be upon the building up of the new
Empire.1

In the meantime opinion at the German Headquarters
had hardened steadily in favour of the bombardment of
Paris, whilst in Berlin the demand for this measure
became a shrill hysterical clamour. The Crown Prince,
however, still maintained the opinion that " a bombard-

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, p. 222.
106

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

ment would be no good, strong as is the tide of opinion 1870
at home in the opposite direction ", and he was warmly
supported in his objection by General von Blumenthal
and Count Moltke. That same day, December 14, he
noted in his Diary :

In Berlin it is now the order of the day to vilify my wife as
being mainly responsible for the postponement of the bombard-
ment of Paris and to accuse her of acting under the direction of
the Queen of England ; all this exasperates me beyond measure.
Countess Bismarck-Schonhausen and the Countess AmelieDonhoff,
a lady of the court of the Dowager Queen Elizabeth,1 have repeated
the scandal quite openly. But who in Berlin can judge what is best
to do before Paris ? Did we by any chance consult these wiseacres
about Weissenberg, "Worth and Sedan ? And yet our exploits at
that time have been deemed quite exemplary. But now in this case,
where the bombardment calls for the most thorough preparations,
especially so because of grave sins of omission on the part of the
War Ministry, and in which we are faced with a siege on an utterly
unprecedented scale, for which the necessary material has not been
got ready, we should, of course, without more ado just loose off
our guns, simply because the laity are of the opinion that Paris
must then quite obviously capitulate 1 Yet, if only one of these
clever people would be so good as just take the trouble to get a
pair of compasses and measure how far our batteries, armed with
the heaviest cannon, can actually reach, and if folks at Berlin would
only realise that though shells may fall in the forts, the houses of
the city itself are far out of range, so that the inhabitants would
not be in the slightest degree incommoded by the firing, then
perhaps they would understand that we are not the dolts they
take us for at home. If we did proceed to a regular siege, the storm-
ing of the fortifications that must inevitably accompany any such
operation, would cost us a frightful toll of men. I should just like
to see the outcry that would then be raised at home! No, we shall
not allow ourselves to be moved one hair's-breadth from our con-
viction just to please these gentlemen sitting at home in comfort-
fortable, cosy rooms. I should like these experts to come along

1 Widow of King Frederick William IV.

107

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 here, take matters in their own hands, and show whether they
understand the job better than we dol l

Here surely was the reductio adabsurdum of the notion
that the Crown Princess dominated her husband. In the
first place, a soldier like the Crown Prince was certainly
not likely to consult his wife on questions relating to the
prosecution of the war when it was as much as he could
do to keep her informed of what had happened the week
before. Had the Crown Prince been the weak man he is
often depicted as, he would have been far more easily in-
fluenced and dominated by the other generals who were
constantly with him, but from all accounts he took a line
of his own and constantly advocated a course of action
that was by no means popular with the army. The theory
that he was overridden by his wife therefore rests on no
foundation whatever. Whenever any Queen or Princess
interests herself in politics and repeats the views of her
husband, it is invariably said that the wife dominates, and
in this case there is small doubt that the Crown Princess
not only took a most intelligent interest in politics, but
also probably repeated, perhaps a little tactlessly, the views
she had heard her husband express or that she read in his
Diary, which he continued to send her. Later, when he
became a sick man and relied on her in a thousand and
one ways, there was, of course, every excuse for the
people in Germany to rush to the conclusion that she
was the one that counted, but at that time of the war
of 1870-71 this slander can only have been invented
by people who were looking for a pretext to depreciate
her.

It is curious to note that while in England Queen
Victoria was accused of sympathising with the Germans,

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick^ pp. 222-223.
108

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

the Crown Princess was said to be scheming with her 1870
mother to prevent Paris from being bombarded, and it
was Bismarck himself who in later years said to his
creature Busch : " Perhaps I may be allowed to mention
the influence brought to bear by the English ladies against
the bombardment of Paris. You remember, ' Schurze
und Schtirzen 5 (aprons and petticoats), that is to say,
freemasons and women." *

Meanwhile, the fighting still continued, and on Decem-
ber 4, after a series of sanguinary engagements, Orleans
surrendered to Prince Frederick Charles. Two days later
the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

Many affectionate thanks for your dear letter received yesterday.
Meanwhile we are trembling with anxiety and excitement, as right-
ing has been going on every day. Orleans having been retaken is
of great importance and perhaps may bring this cruel bloodshed to
an end sooner. Everyone is firmly convinced that the French will
wish to begin another war again as soon as they possibly can to
wipe out the stain of 1870 on their military glory. For this reason
it is argued we must take a part of Lorraine and Alsace, so that
when they do begin again our frontier may be a better protection
to us, since we are never safe from being overrun by the French
whenever their Government thinks it necessary to begin a fresh
quarrel with us. I own I share this opinion and I find it universal
both among soldiers, statesmen and the public at large.

The funds for the sick and wounded are very low — things and
money are sadly wanted I

How is the Wolsey Chapel getting on? I am so glad to hear
the Albert Hall pleases you and that the monument looks fine.
How I long to see all these things again, but make plans one cannot I
And as our visit may be unwelcome and a gene, of course the
chances of my being once more at home get rarer year by year.
It makes me very sad. . . .

The title of Emperor of Germany has been proposed to the

1 Busch's Bismarck, p, 185.

109

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1870 King by the King of Bavaria. I think he will accept it, though I
am not sure. How strange it seems !

Five days later (December n) she wrote :

. . . The fighting that goes on daily distracts us. The French
are determined to go on and we shall have to go on likewise.
About Alsace and Lorraine there is but one voice all over Germany,
that, if we do not keep them (or part of them), we shall be doing
a wrong thing, as we shall be exposing ourselves to the same
calamity as threatened us in July — being attacked and overrun by
the French, whenever it suits them, as our frontiers are too weak
to keep them out. Our only chance for a long era of peace, which
Germany is burning and thirsting for, is by so subduing the
French, that they will not wish to be at us again (at present they
are not subdued and do not own themselves to be beaten), and
making our frontier so formidable, that we are protected from the
dangers of an attack. . . .

The Crown Princess's efforts at alleviating the con-
dition of the wounded now began to secure some measure
of approval, and the Crown Prince in his Diary (Decem-
ber 21) noted that

It was a more cheerful piece of news for me to learn that my
wife's doings as an expert in matters of nursing and tending the sick
are rightly appreciated. Thus a detailed report from the Consult-
ing Surgeon to the Hospitals of the Xlth Army Corps, Professor
Schillbach of Jena, has appeared, which describes the results
achieved in the Homburg Hospital, in which my wife never ceased
to take an active interest, as the best of all those connected with the
Corps.

As if to emphasise Germany's intention to crush
France, the order for the bombardment of Paris was given
on December 30, Bismarck at length having prevailed
over the humanitarian protests of the Crown Prince who,
therefore, " fixed the 4th January as the day for the open-
ing of this wretched bombardment. . . . Bismarck ", he
added, " has made us great and powerful, but he has
no

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

robbed us of our friends, the sympathies of the world 1870
and — our conscience." l The effect, as the Crown Prince
said, of this drastic step on the part of Germany was to
alienate what little sympathy there now was in England
for the triumphant German cause, and the tension be-
tween the two countries became evident in many little
incidents which the Crown Princess did her best to
smooth over. As she wrote to Queen Victoria on
December 30 :

It is so kind of you to break lances for the Germans in England ;
this mutual distrust is too dreadful. It must be the aim of our
statesmen to dispel these feelings, so unjust, unnecessary, and
injurious to all that is useful. Here, the feeling is getting much
better. . . .

That the Prussian officers should be rude to the English ones is
too bad ; but I fear our dear countrymen are a little awkward and
ignorant of the forms which Germans are accustomed to. I know
they quite neglect to have themselves named, and this the Prussians
misunderstand and take for intentional rudeness, which they then
fancy it is their duty to return ; this is too stupid, but I know it
is the case. It all comes from an imperfect knowledge of one
another's national habits, for I have found those Englishmen and
Germans who have lived much in both countries get on particularly
well together, and are the best of friends. Prussians are really very
civil, but they expect this Vorstelhn^ introducing and presenting ;
and if it is forgotten they are offended. I do not think half the
English that go abroad have an idea of this being necessary ; on
the other hand the Germans do not know that it is not the custom
in England and this always creates little disagreeables, and when
there is so much excitable matter in the air, and feelings are so
irritated, every trifle is taken at more than it is worth. Hence these
eternal squabbles and misunderstandings which make me utterly
wretched.

A few days later General Kirchbach, with the approval
of the Emperor of Germany, sent to the Crown Princess

1 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick, p. 238.

Ill

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 a screen that had been taken from the boudoir of the
Empress Eugenie at St. Cloud. The Crown Princess was
anxious that it should be restored to its rightful owner,
who was now a refugee in England, and promptly sent
it to Queen Victoria. Her accompanying letter (January
4, 1871) ran :

I have sent off a large parcel to you, containing a screen. This
screen stood in the Empress's boudoir at St. Cloud. When the
French shells set fire to the house, the Prussian soldiers, as you
know, tried to extinguish the fire and save the valuable things. A
Prussian soldier made his way through smoke and flames at great
risk of his own life, and carried off this screen, which he delivered
up to General Kirchbach (a few minutes later it would have been
burnt). General Kirchbach asked the King's leave to send me this
screen, and obtained it. Although St. Cloud is not the private
property of the Emperor and Empress, and the mobilier belongs to
the State — consequently is no longer theirs, yet I consider this,
and everything else saved, not a trophy of war, and do not see
what right I have to keep it. Moreover, I would not wish to have
anything in my possession which had belonged to the Empress,
who has always been so kind to me, and on different occasions
made me such handsome presents. I have said nothing to anyone
at Versailles, neither to the King nor Fritz, as I can do what I
like with a tiling that has been sent to me, but I would ask you,
dearest Mama, to restore this screen to the poor Empress when
you think fit ; you can tell her its history and how I came by it.
Of course I cannot offer it as a present^ whilst we are at war — that
would not do ; besides, I consider it simply restoring a piece of
property to its rightful owner, which please must be YOUR doing.
I trust in this way no one can blame me, whilst I am doing what I
simply consider my duty.

I do not approve of war trophies, at least of ladies possessing
them ; for soldiers they are lawful, of course, and every army in
the world considers them so. Perhaps you will kindly tell me
when the parcel arrives, and when it has through your kindness
reached its destination. . . .

The arrival of -the screen placed Queen Victoria in a

112

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

predicament. To restore the screen to the Empress might 1871
give the French proof that the Germans had been guilty
of plunder, and her opinion was supported by Earl
Granville, who wrote to her on January 7 :

In this country war trophies mean flags and guns, etc., etc. ; the
presents taken from palaces and country houses, which are said to
have been sent in great quantities from France to Germany, would
be called here acts of plunder, or looting. There may be a slight
distinction in an article taken from a palace belonging to the State,
which had been destroyed by the fire of the French ; but in English
ideas it would have been better if the Crown Prince had abstained
from anything that looked like a sanction to the habit of the German
Army. It would be difficult for your Majesty to receive as a present
something which is known to have been taken from the palace of
a State with which your Majesty is in friendly alliance ; and there
is something awkward in restoring, to the Empress here, that which
belongs to the State in France. The offer might be refused, and the
French entourage might make much of this proof of plunder.

The screen was, therefore, packed up again and re-
turned to the Crown Princess. When the Empress
Eugenie settled down with her husband at Chislehurst it
was sent to her from Germany and so finally reached its
rightful owners.

Meanwhile, the war dragged on. Paris, heroically
suffering the greatest hardships, was still withstanding
all German efforts to reduce it. The steady influx of
wounded into Germany increased, and the indignation of
the Crown Princess at the appalling conditions of some
of the Berlin hospitals is well evidenced in the following
letters :

I go into the hospitals every day [she wrote to Queen Victoria
on January 7], What an effort it costs me I cannot tell you, as I
have nothing to do in them and I see how badly managed they are
without being able to improve them. The stifling atmosphere is
enough to knock one down — and the dirt too repulsive — but the

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 managing ladies seem quite satisfied — the poor victims are so
touchingly contented, patient and grateful in their untold suffer-
ings! My spirits are very low and bad — the thought of all the
misery, woe and suffering of both countries weighs day and night
upon me. After Paris is taken perhaps there may be a chance of
peace. I honour the French for not giving in, though I think they
are exhausting their country and pushing their point cfkonneur
too far. I think that those who did not wish for war should openly
say so now ; the consequences of war are not their doing and they
are not responsible for it, therefore they should try to stop the
mischief it is doing. Our army is straining every nerve in this sad
contest. The bombardment of Paris is a grievous necessity and
felt to be so by everyone engaged in it.

These times are more trying than I can describe — one's feelings
are lacerated on all sides — the most cruel impressions crowd upon
one — and the horizon seems hopelessly dark and dreary.

You cannot think [she wrote again on January n] how
wretchedly unhappy I am about the war. The bombardment is
too dreadful to be thought of, and yet I know it cannot be helped.
The French should have thought of all the risks they were running
in case theirs should not be the winning side when they forced the
warl

The position and task of our troops is too arduous and perilous
— the hardships and dangers they have to go through are too great
for there to be much pity left for our enemies in the public at
large, whose feelings are of course so harassed and worked up —
by all they have to endure in many ways, by the absence of their
relations and by our losses, and the sad and cruel sight of the
crowded hospitals! But I cannot help feeling the deepest pity for
our unfortunate enemy — though I attribute to them alone the
blame, and the responsibility for all the endless misery daily in-
curred. I suffer more at present from the thought of all this than
from my personal anxiety for Fritz and the long trying separation.
I would gladly bear my share and much more if I could but save
the lives of the poor creatures, victims of the warl

Three days later she again wrote :

As the messenger has only this minute arrived, I have hardly
a minute's time left to answer your dear and kind letter — which
114

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

was balm to my harassed feelings! I cannot describe the soreness 1871
and anxiety, the mental sufferings I go through daily on so many
scores. The Queen and Fritz share all these feelings — their senti-
ments are just and elevated — the future weighs on them as it does
on me — they know all the dangers and difficulties before us I I
have had two beautiful letters from dear Fritz, which do his kind
and noble heart such honour I What our army has to go through
is really dreadful, and the esprit de corps is really magnificent, fills
me with admiration and respect. But the public at large are excited,
irritable, etc., and do not show themselves to advantage.

The poor Queen is not so popular as she deserves! She is
perhaps not always happy in the things she does, and her feelings
for French and Catholics are slightly different from mine — you
know she displeases people. But she strives hard to fulfil all her
duties, and has a really vornehme Gesinnung as a lady, a Queen and
a Christian ought to have, and at these times which are so hard
and trying deserves gratitude and sympathy and respect.

I send you a statuette of Fritz in plaster of Paris which is very
like, till I can get you a better one in bronze. I am sure he will
be so much pleased to stand in effigy on your table. I have received
no photos by this messenger.

You ask why Fritz Carl is called " the Red Prince '*. He always
wears the uniform of the Red Hussars of the Guards, or the Ziethen
Husaren, of which he is Colonel, who have red coats with silver —
and a red Kolpack.

I think the protest of the French against the bombardment
foolish and undignified. They have bombarded us night and day for
two months, why should our batteries not answer ? They refused
to listen when England tried to mediate at the beginning of the war,
and would not brook interference. I do not see why they should
cry out for help now, merely because they over-rated their own
forces and under-estimated Germany's power. My grief for the
sufferings they have to endure is unbounded, but how can we as a
nation help it ? And how immense is the loss entailed upon us by
the continuation of the war. . . .

Meanwhile, the German victories had smoothed the
path for German unity. The princes, headed by the King
of Bavaria, now invited King William to assume the

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 leadership of Germany ; and on January 18, in the Palace
of Versailles, he was proclaimed, with imposing cere-
mony, German Emperor. The change of title was by no
means warmly welcomed by the Prussian royal family.
On January 20 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria a letter which shows how difficult was at times
the position of the Princess in the German court :

I was going to tell you by the Empress's (Queen's) own desire
that she knew nothing whatever of the adoption of the Imperial
title on the i8th, nor of the Proclamation. The Emperor is so
averse to the whole change that he did not like it spoken of before-
hand, and no one else took the initiative of informing us here of
what was going to be done! Of course this was an embarrassing
and awkward position for my mother-in-law — who resented the
proceeding very much. I had a deal of difficulty in calming her
down. She calls me to witness her having known nothing until
the day came. I own it is wrong, but I do not think it strange. At
Versailles everyone is wrapt up in military things, and the anxiety,
uncertainty and responsibility are so great that all other considera-
tions seem to be forgotten or at least treated hurriedly.

You say you are glad that my Mama-in-law and I get on well
now together. The wretchedness of my life when we do not, you
do not know. I am only too glad when she will let me be on a
comfortable footing with her. No one knows her really good and
great qualities better than I do, or is happier to see her in a good
humour. What I am going to say may sound presumptuous, but
I do not think the Empress could have a daughter-in-law who
better appreciated the good she has in her — who is more devoted
heart and soul to the cause she has served, who can enter into her
interests more thoroughly, or is more ready to catch up the thread
where she has left it and work in the same direction. I have fought
her battles and smoothed her path wherever I could. I bear no
malice or resentment, though she has made me suffer much (more
than you perhaps can imagine). I am glad to forget it, and remember
only her better moods and her acts of kindness. I feel a deep pity for
her as nature has given her a character and temper which must tend
to unhappiness and Unbefriedigwg wherever she be, and she has
had many a sore and bitter hour to go through during her life. I
116

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

shall feel happy and thankful if I can in any way contribute to make 1871
this and the later period of her existence more peaceful and happy.

I have not a minute to myself, not even to rest of an evening,
as I either go to the Queen, or she comes to me. I can do this
now (though it is a great sacrifice), but when Fritz comes home
I shall not be able, and I fear she will not understand this.

I will prepare some little extracts from Fritz's letters for you,
which I am sure you will like. Dear Fritz, the long separation
seems very hard sometimes, but I have no right to complain.

The defeats of General Bourbaki [at Belfort by General von
Werder] and General Chanzy [near Le Mans on January n by
Prince Frederick Charles] are a great thing and I trust will bring
this horrible war to an end sooner.

Five days later, January 25, 1871, the Crown Princess
remembered with pathetic sentiment the occasion of her
wedding thirteen years earlier.

I waited till this day so dear to me had come round to thank
you for your dear letter of the 2ist. How much my thoughts are
with you today and darling Papa! How I cling to all the precious
recollections of you both and your love — my- home and friends —
so fast receding into the pastl

I little thought then [she wrote] that this day would find Fritz
where he is now and engaged in so awful a taskl And yet I am
so proud of him and every day more grateful that I am his — there
lives no kinder, purer, nobler, better man than he is, and is not
that the greatest praise one can bestow and worth all military glory
twice over ? These six months* separation are very hard, but his
love and kindness make me happy from afar and I am touched
at his finding time to write every day to me in spite of all he has
to do! His letters are a great comfort!

The awful sufferings of the French move one to the greatest
pity, but of course my feelings are specially harassed by thinking
of all our poor men have to go through! Blessed will the day be
when we have peace — and all man's ingenuity, all the powers of
head, heart and hands can be devoted to efface the sad trace of
all these horrors I I am sure much can be done, and that is at this
sad time the thought from which I derive most comfort.

The sentimentality for France — so apparent in England — is sad

117

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 for us — though it can be easily explained. I think that people will
acknowledge that it has more to do with the feelings than with
reason, and therefore I trust it will pass over — when unlucky
France gives up her resistance.

Two days later the eldest son of the Crown Princess
celebrated his thirteenth birthday. That day the Crown
Prince echoed the thoughts of the Princess as he noted
in his Diary :

Today is Wilhelm's thirteenth birthday. May he grow up a
good upright, true and trusty man, one who delights in all that is
good and beautiful, a thorough German who will one day learn to
advance further in the paths laid down by his grandfather and father
for the good governance of our noble Fatherland, working without
fear or favour for the true good of his country. Thank God there
is between him and us, his parents, a simple, natural, cordial relation,
to preserve which is our constant endeavour, that he may always
look upon us as his true, his best friends. It is truly a disquieting
thought to realise how many hopes are even now set on this boy's
head and how great a responsibility to the Fatherland we have to
bear in the conduct of his education, while outside considerations
of family and rank, court life in Berlin and many other things make
his upbringing so much harder. God grant we may guard him
suitably against whatever is base, petty, trivial, and by good guid-
ance train him for the difficult office he is to fill! 1

It was now beginning to dawn on the French, or
rather the Government in Paris, that further resistance
was hopeless, as their supplies must give out in a week's
time. In Germany everyone was tired of the war and
wanted peace. The Crown Princess echoed the feelings of
the majority when she wrote on January 28 :

A thousand thanks for your dear letter by messenger which
gave me so much pleasure with all its kind wishes for the 2jth,
and yesterday our dear Willie's birthday. He was so delighted
with your presents. I had arranged a little surprise for him and

1 The War Diary oftke Emperor Frederick, p. 285.
118

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

the others, allowing them to go to the Schauspielhaus and see a 1871
Panorama, which amused them very much. We are trembling and
hoping for peace! This wish or passionate prayer of two whole
nations must be granted — it would be a disappointment too
dreadful to bear, if peace did not come. Everyone is worn out
with the strain on all one's feelings — on the one side, patriotism
and the pride which looks upon one's troops, and on the other the
pity for the poor French, the grief at the death of so many of our
dear soldiers, and the anxiety, which never leaves one day or night,
about those still in the field.

I telegraphed our title to you yesterday. We are called Kaiser-
liche und Konigliche Hoheit Kronprinz des Deutschen Reichs
und von Preussen. The King is called Deutscher Kaiser, Konig
von Preussen, but usually Kaiser und Konig ; the Empress, of
course, " die Kaiserin-Konigin ". She is beyond measure delighted
at your kind words to her and those to me about her. I am always
spoken to as Imperial Highness (I own I liked the other better),
but as it reminds one of the great political fact of Germany's being
gathered under one head, I am proud to bear this title. I send
you today the extracts from Fritz's letters. Pray let them remain
unknown to anyone except just Lenchen and Christian. I have
not even told Fritz that they are copied and sent to you.

Dear Aunt Clementine's letter I have sent as you wished to
Alice, without letting anyone else see it. You can surely answer
her that if the French Government had listened to yours in this
month of July, they would never have exposed their beautiful
capital to the unavoidable horrors of war, siege and bombardment!
They were warned, but would not listen.

I am sure you would be pleased with William if you were to
see him — he has Bertie's pleasant, amiable ways — and can be very
winning. He is not possessed of brilliant abilities, nor of any
strength of character or talents, but he is a dear boy, and I hope
and trust will grow up a useful man. He has an excellent tutor, I
never saw or knew a better, and all the care that can be bestowed
on mind and body is taken of him. I watch over him myself, over
each detail, even the minutest, of his education, as his Papa had
never had die time to occupy himself with the children. These next
few years will be very critical and important for him, as they are
the passage from childhood to manhood, I am happy to say that
between him and me there is a bond of love and confidence, which

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 I feel sure nothing can destroy. He has very strong health and
would be a very pretty boy were it not for that wretched unhappy
arm which shows more and more, spoils his face (for it is on one
side), his carriage, walk and figure, makes him awkward in all
his movements, and gives him a feeling of shyness, as he feels his
complete dependence, not being able to do a single thing for
himself. It is a great additional difficulty in his education, and is
not without its effect on his character. To me it remains an in-
expressible source of sorrow ! I think he will be very good-looking
when he grows up, and he is already a universal favourite, as he
is so lively and generally intelligent. He is a mixture of all our
brothers — there is very little of his Papa, or the family of Prussia
about him.

The intense desire of the Crown Princess for peace
was now gratified. The steady bombardment of Paris,
coupled with starvation within its gates and the failure
of all efforts at relief, compelled the Parisians to sue for
terms. On January 28 Paris capitulated, and an armistice
of three weeks was agreed upon between Bismarck and
Jules Favre, the French Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Crown Princess was relieved, but by no means jubi-
lant. As she wrote to Queen Victoria on February 4 :

Many most affectionate thanks for your dear letter by messenger.
I was sure you would feel as thankful for the Armistice as we do !
Fritz praises Monsieur Jules Favre. I pity the luckless man to have
to be the bearer of tidings which' must irritate the Parisians and
provincial war party to the extreme ; but I trust that party is losing
ground. They seem to have totally miscalculated the amount of
food contained in Paris and were therefore obliged to capitulate.
What an intense relief it is to know that the sufferings of those
poor creatures are at an end!

We know nothing about the Emperor's return, but he cannot
leave his Army before Peace or (what would be too awful and
seems most unlikely) a recommencement of hostilities is decided
upon. Just fancy in these six months we have lost (the Prussian
Army) uoo Officers alone! Does it not seem too dreadful! Half
our acquaintances and friends are gone! It makes me quite ill to
1 2O

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

read the newspapers and all the accounts of the destruction and 1871
ruin in France. It is the retaliation for the way in which the French
treated Germany in 1806-1809 — from which we are still suffering.
The town of Kdnigsberg had not finished paying off the contribu-
tion levied by Napoleon I. last yearl

Perhaps the Emperor and Fritz will return for the opening of
the Reichstag, which is to be on the 9th March.

I go to the hospitals whenever I can spare an hour and many
are the sad and heartrending sights I have seen. The cold causes such
dreadful frostbites. Yesterday I was told of five unlucky wretches
whose feet were frozen on the railway and who will have to have
their feet taken off. All these horrors make me too miserable, the
thought of what so many poor unfortunate human beings have to
endure haunts me day and night.

The proposed terms of peace were hard. There was
magnanimity, even chivalry, in Prussian treatment of
Denmark in 1864 and Austria and Saxony in 1866 ;
neither was shown to France in 1871. The greater part
of Alsace and Lorraine, a huge indemnity and other crush-
ing spoils were demanded. In vain did the Crown Prince
and even Bismarck seek to relinquish the claim to Metz;
Moltke and the generals were resolute. The spirit of
France had to be broken, and it could only be broken,
they urged, by the rod of humiliation. English opinion
now veered over entirely in favour of France, and the
Crown Princess, in her letter of February 7, 1871, when
these terms of peace were rumoured, dismissed them as
preposterous.

Many most affectionate thanks for your dear letter of the 4th.
I cannot think how mine could have been such a long while on the
road I Meanwhile you will have the report about the most exorbi-
tant conditions of peace contradicted; it seems it was invented by a
German newspaper correspondent. I never believed it for a moment.
At such a moment as this, a report of this kind is enough to make
everyone cry out. No one seems to doubt of the possibility of peace
being soon concluded at Versailles, in spite of Gambetta's efforts to

121

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 the contrary. It is too ardently desired by both sides not to succeed
in the end, though I am sure we shall be worried and excited by
all sorts of fluctuating reports, difficulties, etc., before the final
settlement.

The British Government possibly held the same views,
for two days later, at the formal opening of Parliament,
the speech from the throne seemed to express sympathy
with France, an event which gave great annoyance to the
German Empress. The following day (February 10) the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

I saw the Queen-Empress, who was irate about your speech in
Parliament, saying that it flattered the French unnecessarily and
expressed unconcealed sympathy with their cause, that it omitted
saying a word about the origin of the war, or even expressing
again what everyone had admitted, that Germany was attacked
and not attacking, that the passage about Germany was more than
cold and decidedly the reverse of civil. The Empress went on to
add that it had made the same impression upon everyone here,
that it would create a very bad feeling, etc. In short, she was very
angry. As I could not go her length about it, we could not agree.
Alas, it is true that the excitement against England is very great
just at this moment. It was not so a fortnight ago, but now people
are frantic at the anti-German feeling in England, which reveals it-
self more every day. They think it unjust and unfair! How I suffer
from all this I cannot say, as of course I cannot hear a word said
against England — and I give it back (I fear not always gently) when
I hear sharp words. Popular opinion is like the sea — it is easily
lashed up into fury — and the waves calm down by degrees when
the wind ceases blowing — and so it will be with these storms of
indignation in both our countries, there is injustice in the feeling
of both. I must own the speech did not strike me in the sense which
is attached to it here, and I fancy it was well adapted for England,
which of course is the proper criterion.

In reply to a further letter from the Crown Princess,1
Queen Victoria, whose affection for her eldest grandson
had been long remarked, made reply :

1 Which is unfortunately not available.
122

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

I will finish today [she wrote on February 11, 1871], and wish 1871
just to touch on your answer to my observations and hopes respect-
ing Willie. The vehemence with which you speak of " the horror
of low company " would make it appear as though I had advocated
it! The low company you speak of consisting of actors, actresses,
musicians, barbers (in one case at least), etc. are the very reverse
of what I suggested, for those sorts of people are the proudest and
unkindest to those below them and to the poor. What I meant
(but what I fear your position in Prussia, living always in a Palace
with the ideas of immense position of Kings and Princes, etc.) is :
that the Princes and Princesses should be thoroughly kind, mensch-
lich, should not feel that they were of a different flesh and blood to
the poor, the peasants and working classes and servants, and that
going amongst them, as we always did and do, and as every respect-
able lady and gentleman does here — was of such immense benefit
to the character of those who have to reign hereafter. To hear of
their wants and troubles, to minister to diem, to look after them
and be kind to them (as you and your sisters were accustomed to
be by good old Tilla) does immense good to the character of
children and grown-up people. It is there that you learn lessons of
kindness to one another, of patience, endurance and resignation
which cannot be found elsewhere. The mere contact with soldiers
never can do that, or rather the reverse, for they are bound to obey
and no independence of character can be expected in the ranks.

The Germans must be very different from the English and above
all from the Scotch — if they are not fit to be visited in this way.
But I fear they are, from what dear Papa often said, and the English
even are in that respect, especially in the South — for in the North
they possess a good deal of that great independence of character,
determination, coupled with real high noble feelings, which will
not brook being treated with haughtiness. The Germans have less
of this.

Dear Papa knew how to value and appreciate this, and so do
our children as much as I do and all reflecting minds here. This is
what I meant and maintained is essential for a Prince or Princess of
our times. Regarding the higher classes, the way in which their
sins and immoralities are overlooked, indulged, forgiven — when
the third part in lower orders would be highly punished, is enough
to cause democratic feelings and resentment. I am sure you watch
over your dear boy with the greatest care, but I often think too

J23

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 great care, too much constant watching, leads to the very dangers
hereafter which one wishes to avoid.

It is a terrible difficulty and a terrible trial to be a Prince. No
one having the courage to tell them the truth or accustom them to
those rubs and knocks which are so necessary to boys and young
men.

That your dear boys may grow up all that you can wish and
desire and be good men and Christians and beloved and looked up
to — is my earnest prayer 1 l

To this letter the Crown Princess made reply (Feb-
ruary 15) :

Many affectionate thanks for your dear, long and interesting
letter which I received the day before yesterday and am distressed
not to be able to answer as fully as I should like. But it does not
seem to me as if I had misunderstood your first letter. I think
in the main as you do — though I suppose I expressed myself
differently. You wish the same results as I do. But my children
see more beyond the walls of a Palace than you think, although
we are so much more in town than you and dear Papa used to be.
Our farm and the village at Darmstadt, where the children are
with me every day, gives them an opportunity of going in and
out of the cottages — though the inhabitants are not all so nice and
simple as one could wish. The German Bauer is not a very amiable
individual and is distinguished by his obstinacy and hardness.
Country life affords a thousand opportunities for a natural Verkehr
with the people of hamlets and villages — which of course those
who live in a town are debarred from. Our little school is an
interest which the children share, and the more independent we
become the more we shall be able to procure for our children all
that is healthy, simple, natural and good for their minds and
character. So I think you will see I do understand what you mean.

Meanwhile, the latent irritation between England and
Germany seemed to be growing, and the position of the
Crown Princess had become more difficult. Moreover,
now that British public opinion had become anti-German,

1 Both this letter and the following one refer to other letters
which are unfortunately missing.
124

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

those whose sympathies were with the French did not 1871
hesitate to accuse Queen Victoria and her family of a
breach of neutrality in sending messages of congratula-
tion to the German royal family. These accusations
became so serious that the matter was brought up in the
House of Commons, but Mr. Gladstone poured what oil
he could on these troubled waters, and the matter was
eventually dropped.

The Crown Princess was full of sympathy for the
difficult part her mother had to play and viewed with
intense regret the growing animosity between England
and Germany. On March 4 she wrote :

A thousand most tender thanks for your dear and kind letter
by messenger. I am sure it must give you who are so generous,
kind and just, pain to think of the animosity growing in England
against Germany, but it is no use shutting our eyes against facts,
and that it is one I do not doubt. It makes your position often
trying, I am sure ; but I can understand what that position is ;
you must not in any way allow yourself to be separated from your
own people — the first people in the world, for I may say so to you,
and it is every day more my conviction. How much I have suffered
from the feeling between the two nations I cannot say I How at
times unkindly and unjustly I have been used! And how many
tears I have shed! But one must learn to look at things philo-
sophically. Peoples are like individuals in many things. One
knows what a quarrel is between friends or relations, one can trace
the reasons small or great, and can calculate their effects on an
excited brain. Time cures this. Now we have peace at last, the
news of our doings in France will no longer exasperate the English
by working up their pity for the most unfortunate but guilty
French.

Peace too will put an end to the part of a neutral, which is a
most difficult part ; and though I regretted England should have
played it, still I think the Government has done it admirably;
that it should have been taken at all, exasperated Germany ; now
that reason is removed I am sure it will calm down. If angry words,
scoffs and taunts, thrown backwards and forwards like a shuttle-

125

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 cock, conjure up mischief and ill-will, so must kind acts and words,
and the rightly expressed sentiments of sensible men, reproduce
the feelings which ought to exist between Germany and England.
Count Bismarck is not eternal, he will be as quickly forgotten as
the poor Emperor Napoleon, who is now scarcely remembered. . . .

A fortnight later the victorious Crown Prince returned
to Berlin — and once again the Crown Prince and Princess
and their family of six were reunited. The Crown Prin-
cess's cup of happiness was full. Her work in the hospitals
had at length received some little recognition, her husband
had returned covered with glory from an arduous war,
her family appeared to be growing up well and strong,
and Germany had taken her place in the front rank of the
Great Powers. For the third time in seven years a war
had been brought to a successful conclusion, each time
with increased prestige and territory for the conqueror.
Germany was enfete^ and the Crown Princess was now
unknowingly at her zenith. On March 28, 1871, she wrote
to Queen Victoria :

Many thanks for your dear letter received yesterday. By
Louise's telegram I see the Emperor Napoleon [who had been
released from Germany and, for the third time in his career, had
taken up his residence in England] has been to see you. I am sure
this visit must have been a painful one to both! We hear from
different sides well acquainted with his doings that he has great
hopes of regaining his throne since this dreadful revolution in
Paris. I wonder he can wish it — and is not too proud to entertain
any such idea after all that has been said and written in public
about his Government by the French. . . .

We are quite exhausted by the fatigue of these continued f^tes,
for I suppose there will be a repetition when the troops return
and the statue of Frederick William will be unveiled. How the
Emperor and Empress can stand it and like it all is beyond my
comprehension — all other mortals get knocked up. The state of
France makes it impossible to tell when our troops will be home.
The middle of May, most people say.
126

THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR

Even after the peace of Frankfort, however, Anglo- 1871
German animosity did not appear to undergo any allevia-
tion, and when it was rumoured that a statue of King
Frederick William III. was to be unveiled at Berlin on
June 1 6 with all the pomp of the return of the victorious
German army, but in the absence of the British Ambas-
sador (Lord Augustus Loftus, who was on leave in Baden),
the Crown Princess telegraphed to Lord Granville, the
British Foreign Secretary, to ask if this slight could not
be avoided. Lord Granville's reply (June 14) ran :

I have had the honour of receiving your Royal Highness's
telegram of today and I gladly avail myself of an opportunity of
writing a few lines to your Royal Highness.

There is a series of circulars to our Ambassadors abroad, regulat-
ing their conduct when this country has been a neutral during
the time of a European war, on the occasion of rejoicings at the
victories which have been gained.

I am afraid if our Ambassador was at Berlin at a moment when
German enthusiasm must, as at the present moment, be raised to
the highest point after the glorious and extraordinary achievements
of the last year, the observance by him of the rules, which have
been laid down and acted upon on former occasions, would create
some comment and disappointment among those who were not
aware of our rules. Lord A. Loftus having taken two months'
leave, it is perfectly natural he should not be at his post. The
embassy will be illuminated, and I have received the Queen's per-
mission to write a letter instructing Mr. Petre to congratulate the
Emperor warmly in Her Majesty's name on the inauguration of the
statue of Frederick William the Third. . . .

On June 16 the statue was formally unveiled after a
march past of the triumphant returning troops and the
presentation to the Crown Prince of his Field-Marshal's
baton, but the absence of the British Ambassador was
remarked.

Queen Victoria was now anxious to restore harmony

127

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 between the Crown Princess and her brother, the Prince
of "Wales, whose French leanings during the war had
caused much heartburning in Berlin. "With this end in
view the Queen invited the Crown Prince and Princess
and their family to London in July, when a happy recon-
ciliation was made/^the Prince of Wales showing all his
old cordiality. At the outset, the Crown Prince and
Princess stayed (from July 3 to 13) at the German Em-
bassy, where the Prince and Princess of Wales often
visited them. The four were in agreement on many
points, notably in their joint " horror " of Bismarck,
whose unprincipled " driving power " was, the Crown
Prince deplored, " omnipotent ".* The Crown Prince
returned to Germany on the i3th, but the Princess re-
mained to spend the summer and early autumn with the
Queen at Osborne or Balmoral. At both places she had
many opportunities of renewing that cordial relationship
with her brother which had been somewhat interrupted
by the war.

1 Extract from Queen Victoria's Diary, cited in article entitled
" Queen Victoria and France ", by R. S. Rait in Quarterly Review,
July 1919, pp. 10, n.

128

CHAPTER V

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

THE startling and overwhelming German victories in 1871
the field during the Franco-German War had now placed
Germany upon a pinnacle of military glory. Her mercury
had risen rapidly, and Bismarck, prudent, watchful and
ambitious, early realised that the first essential to the
security of the new German Empire was the continuance
of benevolent friendliness on the part of Russia. Ger-
many, no longer a fortuitous concourse of antagonistic
states, was now a power to be reckoned with. In alliance
with Russia, Austria and Italy she would be the dominat-
ing factor in Europe— the goal to which Bismarck was
driving. Hence in the following year Bismarck arranged
a meeting between the Emperors of Germany, Russia
and Austria, and there resulted that vague friendly Dm-
fadserhmd which was presumed to be the forerunner of
alliances.1

One of the diplomatic changes following the Franco-
German War was the translation of Lord Augustus
Loftus, the British Ambassador at Berlin, to St Peters-
burg, and his replacement by Mr. Odo Russell (after-
wards Lord Ampthill). The Crown Princess had never
been on terms of more than social acquaintance with Lord

1 In 1879 the Austro-German Alliance was formed, which was
joined in 1882 by Italy, thus creating the Triple Alliance,

K 129

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1871 Augustus Loftus, whose Danish sympathies during the
war of 1864 had antagonised her, but with the new Am-
bassador there sprang up at once a keen, delightful and
lasting friendship. At Vienna Russell had begun his
diplomatic career, and after short periods at the Paris,
Constantinople and Washington embassies, he was ap-
pointed, in 1858, to the British Legation at Florence
whence he was detached to reside in Rome. At the end of
1870, his tact and ability were recognised when he was
sent on a special mission to the headquarters of the Ger-
man army at Versailles, where he became the trusted friend
of the Crown Prince. In 1871 he was appointed Am-
bassador to Berlin. He had scarcely entered upon his
duties when he received instructions from the Foreign
Office to intimate to Bismarck (now Chancellor of the
German Empire) that Great Britain was in danger of being
involved in war with Russia.

In the preceding year the rivalry between Great
Britain and Russia in Central Asia and the Near East had
become more and more acute, and Bismarck had carefully
fostered a growing friendship that had sprung up between
the Emperors of Russia and Germany. In the October
of 1870, the Emperor of Russia, feeling that while Ger-
many and France were locked in a death struggle there
was small chance of their intervening in outside affairs,
determined to rid Russia of an irksome article in the
Treaty of Paris of 1856 which prohibited her using
the Black Sea for warships. Lord Granville, the British
Foreign Secretary, immediately threatened war as the
consequence of this cynical disregard of the Treaty.
Bismarck suggested a conference, which eventually took
place in London in March 1871, when a new treaty was
signed by which the neutralisation of the Black Sea was
130

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

annulled. The British diplomatic defeat was complete, 1872
and neither Germany nor Russia forgot that at this junc-
ture their mutual support had been too much for Great
Britain.

Not unnaturally Bismarck's policy ran counter to the
aspirations of those who sought a closer understanding
between the new Germany and England — of whom the
Crown Princess, rightly or wrongly, was assumed to be
the leader. In addition to the international questions
which threatened European complications, there were
no less difficult problems due to dissensions within the
German court. The imperious and vindictive Bismarck
was by no means friendly to the Empress Augusta, whom
he conceived to be opposed to his policy of limiting the
powers of the Catholic Church in Prussia, nor indeed
were his relations with the Crown Princess any better :
and he frequently complained to the British Ambassador
in the bluntest language of the lack of harmony between
them. Lady Emily Russell, wife of Mr. Odo Russell, 1873
writing to Queen Victoria on March 15, 1873, after an
official dinner at the British Embassy which had been
attended by the German Emperor and Empress, gives an
indication of the tension which then existed :

I avail myself of Your Majesty's gracious permission to write,
to say how deeply gratified we have been by the visit their
Majesties the Emperor and Empress have deigned to pay us, and
by the exceptional favour conferred upon us, by their Majesties
being pleased to accept a dinner at the Embassy.

This high distinction, which no other Embassy has ever yet
enjoyed in Berlin, is due to those deep feelings of devoted admira-
tion which Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Augusta never
ceases to express in eloquent and glowing terms, when speaking
of her friendship and sympathy for Your Majesty. My husband
says that this gracious demonstration of goodwill towards Your

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1873 Majesty's Embassy reported by all the press of Germany, will do
more towards improving the friendly relations of England and
Germany, he has so much at heart, than a thousand despatches and
blue books. The Empress whose conversation is so brilliantly
clever, as Your Majesty knows, was more so than ever throughout
the evening. Her Majesty repeatedly said " I fancy myself in dear
England ", and before rising from dinner drank Your Majesty's
health in terms of affectionate respect and with all sincere good
wishes for Your Majesty's welfare and happiness. Their Imperial
Majesties were immensely cheered by the crowd in the street both
on coming to, and leaving the Embassy.

Your Majesty is aware of the political jealousy of Prince Bis-
marck about the Empress Augusta's influence over the Emperor,
which he thinks stands in the way of his anti-Clerical and National
policy, and prevents the formation of responsible ministries as in
England. The Empress told my husband he [Bismarck] has only
twice spoken to Her Majesty since the war, and [she] expressed a
wish that he should dine with us also. According to etiquette he
would have had to sit on the left side of the Empress, and Her
Majesty would then have had an hour during which he could not
have escaped conversing. Prince Bismarck accepted our invitation
but said he would prefer to set aside etiquette, and cede the " pas "
to the Austrian Ambassador. However, on the day of the dinner
and a short time before the hour appointed, Prince Bismarck sent
an excuse saying he was ill with lumbago. The diplomatists look
mysterious and hint at his illness being a diplomatic one.

Prince Bismarck often expresses his hatred for the Empress in
such strong language that my husband is placed in a very difficult
position and still more so, when he complains of the want of
harmony existing between Her Royal and Imperial Highness the
Crown Princess and himself. He says he is able to agree with
the Crown Prince, but he fears that will never be possible with
the Crown Princess.

This state of things is very distressing and my husband is
more unhappy about it than he can ever say, because he foresees
difficulties in the future that will be quite beyond the influence of
diplomacy, Prince Bismarck being so unscrupulous in his use of
the press to undermine his political enemies — as his letter insinuat-
ing that the Empress was sending money to the refractory Catholic
priests through the Chamberlain Count Schaffgotsch proves.

132

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

My husband fears that Prince Bismarck will seek to make the 1873
position of the Crown Princess with the public a very difficult one,
in order to have his own way about the administration of Germany,
which he wants to unify altogether, as Cavour unified Italy — by
mediatising the reigning Princes.

The Emperor expressed in the warmest terms his high sense
of honour conferred on Countess Bernstorff by Your Majesty's
visit and said how much touched he and the Empress had been by
it Their Majesties do not yet know whom Prince Bismarck intends
to propose as successor to poor Count Bernstorff.

We had the honour of a visit, a week ago, from Prince William
and Prince Henry accompanied by Herr Hintzpeter, Their Royal
Highness' Preceptor. Everyone who has the gratification of speak-
ing to Prince William is struck by his naturally charming and
amiable qualities, his great intelligence and his admirable education.
The return of Their Imperial Highnesses the Crown Prince and
Princess has been a great joy and gratification and also to witness
the perfect restoration to health of the Crown Prince. We had the
honour of dining alone with Their Imperial Highnesses the day
before yesterday and we were delighted to see how well His
Imperial Highness looked, and seemed, and that with the exception
of being a little paler his illness had left no traces. Her Imperial
Highness was looking very well.

Ever since the Franco-German War the relations
between the Crown Princess and the Prince of Wales
had known no cloud, and brother and sister repeatedly
exchanged visits. When, in July 1874, the Crown Prince 1874
and Princess visited London, where they stayed at the
German Embassy, The Times^ in a burst of good feeling,
described the Crown Prince as " the consistent friend
in Prussia of all mild and liberal administration ", and
predicted that when the liberal-minded Crown Prince
ascended the German throne the main obstacles to friend-
ship between the two countries would disappear.

At the end of August 1874 the Prince and Princess of
Wales came to Berlin to attend the confirmation of Prince

133

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 874 William of Prussia — the Crown Princess's eldest son — and
after the boy's confirmation his uncle, the Prince of
Wales, wrote on September i? 1874, to Queen Victoria
from the Neue Palais :

I was much struck with the solemnity and simplicity of the
service. Willy went through his examination admirably, and the
questions he had to answer must have lasted half an hour. It was
a great ordeal for him to go through before the Emperor and
Empress and all his family. I was only too glad to take the Sacra-
ment with Vicky and Fritz and Willy, after the ceremony, and the
service is almost the same as ours. Willy was much pleased with
your presents which were laid out in my sitting-room. Your letter
to him and the inscription you wrote in the Bible I thought beauti-
ful, and I read them to him. All you said I thought so very true.1

The Crown Princess's own letter to her mother
(September i) ran :

It is a difficult task to give you a description of today, as my
heart is so filled with emotion that I do not know where to begin.
But first of all let me thank you most tenderly for all your kind
and touching marks of sympathy. The kind letter you wrote me
arrived this morning before the ceremony began, which was of
course a great comfort, as I feel your absence very much on this
occasion. Your letter to William and especially what you wrote
into his Bible was beautiful and touched Fritz very much indeed.
We thank you a thousand times for it! Willy was delighted and
surprised at suddenly becoming the possessor of so large and beautiful
a picture of dear Papal Dear Bertie is all kindness, so considerate,
so amiable and affectionate — so kindly accepting all that we can
do for his comfort or entertainment, which alas is not much. He
is as amiable a guest as he is a host, and this is saying a great deall
It is a great comfort and happiness to have him here, as I should
have felt rather low at having no one of pur family present.

The ceremony took place at n. Fritz and I drove with Willy
and took him into the vestry to wait until the company had
assembled and taken their seats in the church I We received the
Emperor and Empress and the few members of the Prussian family

1 Sir Sidney Lee, King Edward VIL vol. i. p. 430,

134

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

who were here outside the Friedenskirche in the cloisters you may 1874
remember, and then all went in. The church was prettily decorated
with wreaths of green and green plants, a low platform had been
erected in the middle with two steps, on which the temporary
altar stood, and a chair and a little desk were placed for Willy. A
carpet of my own working covered the steps, and the pall which
once covered my darling Sigie's coffin, and which I gave to the
church as an Altardecke, covered the Communion Table ; it is all
of white satin with S and a crown in gold in the corners.

For the members of the royal family there were two rows of
chairs. The rest of the company in the nave stood (I fear they must
have been very tired, as the ceremony was very long). William
behaved very well, and was not at all either shy or upset — and
showed the greatest sang-froid. He read his Glaulensbekenntniss
off in a loud and steady voice — and answered the forty questions
which the clergyman put to him without hesitation or embarrass-
ment. The Emperor's interest is warm, but alas his influence on
the child's education whenever he enforces it is very hurtfid\ The
Empress means most kindly. She was deeply moved and so was
the Emperor. Charlotte, Henry and Vicky cried the whole time.
The clergyman's three long addresses might have been better and
shorter, still they did not spoil the ceremony I The communion
followed directly after — dearest Bertie took it with us and Willy,
no one else receiving it except three ladies and two gentlemen of our
household. The Emperor and Empress remained as spectators.

As you like to hear little details I will add that I was in black
with a plain white crepelissa bonnet, and Willy in uniform. Some-
times I feel too young for a mother of a son already confirmed, and
then at times so old! Another thought grieves me — though one
ought not to shrink from a sacrifice! Today is a sort of break
up — in two days the boys leave us for school where they will
stay three years — only returning for the holidays — then Willy will
go into the army and Henry to a naval school! I feel giving them
up like this very much!

Tomorrow is the parade at Berlin, and then the day after dear
Bertie leaves in the early morning. Tomorrow Charlotte, Vicky
and Waldie leave for Aussen for three or four weeks, so I am rather
in low spirits, but it will do them good. Sandown has done worlds
for them already and I trust this will brace them up for the winter.

May I beg one favour — you have conferred so many on us that

135

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1874 I hardly like to ask, still I will venture — will you send some mark
of your approbation to Willie's excellent tutor Dr. Hintzpeter, to
whom the boy owes everything. You know it has not always
been very easy for me, nor have I always been in the Dr.'s good
graces, but he has bravely done his duty by the boys and devoted
himself heart and soul to their education. A mark of encourage-
ment would, I am sure, give the greatest pleasure — such as a few
words written, and a print of yourself!

I hope you will not think me too wbescheiden.

I must end now, dearest Mama, being in great haste and already
late; will you impart a little extract of^this to the Geschwister
who may like to know how this first Confirmation in the younger
generation has gone off! "With renewed tenderest thanks for all
your kindness — for the splendid gifts and the dear and memorable
words to Willy.

In the few years that had elapsed since the end of the
Franco-Prussian War the resilience of the French tem-
perament had been evident in the dispatch with which
France set about healing her wounds. Before the end of
1873 th6 whole of the indemnity had been paid off,
German troops had evacuated her territory, and France
was on the road to recovery from her military humilia-
tion. Bismarck watched the French rebound with sus-
picion, and rumours about the increase of the French
army and the importation of horses into France on a huge
scale led him to fear a surprise attack, and the German
press was mobilised to call attention to this menace.

Queen Victoria now appealed in an autograph letter
to the German Emperor William I. to do all he could to
prevent another war breaking out, and asked the Tsar
Alexander IL? who was in Berlin at the time, to help
with his influence. Her timely interference was fully
justified, for the Tsar's opposition had the effect of frus-
trating Bismarck's plans.
136

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

Meanwhile, the Chancellor had directed his energies 1874
to reducing the power of the Roman Catholic priest-
hood in Prussia and had come into collision with the
Pope, who expostulated against the drastic measures
that were being adopted to bring the Roman Catholic
Church under state control. King William, on Bismarck's
advice, replied with a stern rebuke to the Pope, and
even France and Belgium were made to disavow all
sympathy with the Catholic Bishops who had protested
against Bismarck's persecution of their Prussian co-
religionists.

The relations between the Crown Princess and Bis-
marck at this period were almost at their worst. Since
he had become Chancellor his attitude in general had
become much more intractable, much more ruthless. To
his rivals, potential or active, he adopted the attitude
that Rome adopted towards Carthage. Germany must
go on, juggernaut-like, to its great destiny as arbiter
of Europe, and if a few individuals were so inconsiderate
as to stand in the way of the German machine, they must
be crushed. The Crown Princess, however, was not one
of the rabble who crowded the streets — she sat at the
foot of the throne — and a slight turn in fortune's wheel
would give her the right to be co-occupant of that throne.
Bismarck could not crush her. But her liberal leanings,
her democratic sympathies, her abhorrence of the mailed
fist and the policy of blood and iron, created in him a
resentment and bitter fury that echoed through the courts
of Europe. The Crown Princess saw that Germany re-
quired " rest, peace and quiet " and resented the hostility
which Bismarck was stirring up within and without the
state. Her attitude may be gauged from her letter to
Queen Victoria of June 5, 1875 — the day following a

137

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1875 long interview between the Crown Prince and Bismarck.
Her letter runs :

Fritz saw the great man yesterday evening, who is going away
into the country for some time! He assured him that he sees no
cause anywhere for alarm on the political horizon, that he had
never wished for war nor intended it, that it was all the fault of
the Berlin press, etc. He said he deeply regretted England being
so unfriendly towards us, and the violent articles in the Times
against us. He could not imagine why England suddenly took up
a position against us. He added that you had been much excited
and worked upon against us, etc., and even named the Empress
Eugenie, etc. 11! This seems so foolish to me! Certain it is that
he did not intend (as you will read in the little German aperfu)
to alarm the world to the extent he has done, and is now very
much annoyed at the consequences. He also fancies that in England
there is great anxiety about India, and that England must therefore
try to make friends with Russia (a nos depens). Bertie's journey
to India is mentioned as a symptom! This seems to me very-
absurd — but that is what he thinks. Lord Derby's speech has also
offended him, which I cannot understand. I feel sure all this irrita-
tion will blow over. But to us and to many quiet and reflecting
Germans it is very sad, and appears very hard — to be made an
object of universal distrust and suspicion, which we naturally are as
long as Prince Bismarck remains the sole and omnipotent ruler of our
destinies. His will alone is law here, and on his good or bad humour
depend our chances of safety and peace. To the great majority
of Germans and to most Prussians, this is a satisfactory state! He
possesses a prestige unequalled by anything and is all powerful To
me this state is simply intolerable and seems very dangerousl Germany
wants rest, peace and quiet — her commerce and the development of
her inner resources are not progressing as they should! Our riches
do not increase and we are in a most uncomfortable and crippled state
which will so remain as long as the sword of war hangs over our heads.

The Great Man does not quite shut his eyes to this — and that
makes me hopeful. But as long as he lives we cannot ever feel safe
or comfortable — and who knows what it will be like when he
has gone! He fancies the conflict with the Roman Catholic church
will be quite over by next spring ; and I know many who share
this opinion. At present Prince Bismarck is bent on being as well

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

as possible with France, England, Austria, Russia and Italy and 1875
all other states. He knows very little about foreign countries, and
about England nothing at all, so he is often wrong in his surmises
and believes any nonsense his favourites tell him. His ideas about
the press are very mediaeval — in fact he is mediaeval altogether
and the true theories of liberty and of modern government are
Hebrew to him, though he adopts and admits a democratic idea or
measure now and then when he thinks they will serve his purpose ;
and his power is unlimited. 1

Queen Victoria replied on June 8 :

I have just received your dear long letter with the enclosure
which I have not had time to read properly, but I wish just to answer
those principal points in your letter, though of course you know
how absurd these ideas and notions of Bismarck's are.

First, as regards my being irritated against Germany, or any-
body else working upon mel It was I ALONE who, on hearing from
ALL sides from our Ministers abroad of the danger of war, told my
Ministers that everything MUST be done to prevent it, that it was too
intolerable that a war should be got up and brought about by mutual
reports between Germany and France, that each intended to attack
the other, that we must prevent this and join with other Powers in
strong remonstrances and warnings as it was not to be tolerated.
No one wishes more, as you know, than I do for England and
Germany to go well together ; but Bismarck is so overbearing,
violent, grasping and unprincipled that no one can stand it, and all
agreed that he was becoming like the first Napoleon whom Europe
had to join in PUTTING down. This was the feeling, and we were
determined to prevent another war. At the same time I said France
must be told she must give no cause of anger or suspicion to Ger-
many, and must not let them have any pretext to attack her. France
will for many years be quite incapable of going to war and is
terrified at the idea of it ; I know this to be a fact The Due Decazes
is a sensible prudent man, fully aware of this, and one who is doing
all he can to act according to this advice.

I wrote at that moment a private letter to the Emperor Alexander
urging him to do all he could in a pacific sense at Berlin, knowing

1 Partly published in Buckle and Monypenny's Life of Disraeli,
vol. v. pp. 424-425.

139

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 875 ^e surety ne had to prevent war, ar
uncle and he him.

As for anyone working upon me in the sense Bismarck thinks,
it is too absurd. I am not worked upon by anyone ; and though I
am very intimate with the dear Empress,1 her letters hardly ever
contain any allusion to politics, certainly never anything which
could be turned against her or me, and she sends her letters either
by messenger or in indirect ways, and I mine the same.

You know how I dislike political letters and politics in general,
and therefore that it is not very likely that I should write to her on
them! and the Empress Eugenie I only see once or twice a year
and she never writes to me 11 and never speaks politics to me. So
then you see what nonsense that is! . . .

But Bismarck is a terrible man, and he makes Germany greatly
disliked ; indeed no one will stand the overbearing insolent way in
which he acts and treats other nations, Belgium for instance.

You know the Prussians are not popular unfortunately, and no
one will tolerate any Power wishing to dictate to all Europe. This
country, with the greatest wish to go hand in hand with Germany,
cannot and WILL not stand it?

Even in those days the Balkans never failed to provide
a spark for any conflagration that was impending in
Europe, and when the Christians in Bosnia and Herze-
govina broke into rebellion against Turkey in 1875 both
Russia and England urged the Porte to grant adequate
reforms. But the confusion grew worse, and when, in
1876 July 1876, Montenegro and Servia declared war on their
suzerain, Turkey, the Balkans were aflame from coast to
coast. Mr. Gladstone, who had always concentrated his
rhetorical powers on the atrocities committed by the
Turks, now emerged from his retirement and headed a
violent agitation against Turkey that had sprung up in

1 The German Empress Augusta.

2 Cited in the Quarterly Review^ July 1919, in article entitled
" Queen Victoria and France ", by Sir S. Lee.

140

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

Great Britain. Regardless of British treaty obligations, 1876
he demanded that the traditional policy of supporting
Turkey should be abandoned, and that the Turks should
be expelled " bag and baggage " from the Slav provinces,
if not from Europe altogether.

The situation was complicated by the successes of the
Turkish armies, which threatened the existence of Servia
so far as to bring about the possibility of Russia's inter-
vention. On September 16, 1876, the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

. . . What you say about the Oriental question seems very
true to me! The difficulty surely is that there are many different
questions which have to be settled which are then collectively
called the " Eastern Question ", and thus confuse the public. Mr.
Gladstone seems to have proposed so enormous a change that I
cannot imagine it could have another effect than that of unsettling
everything and putting nothing safe or durable in its stead. It
must be very difficult for your Government to steer clear of all
these dangers ; on the one side to promote peace, on the other
to keep an ever-watchful eye on Russia, which is now more than
ever necessary, and lastly to come to some radical cure and final
settlement of a question which has so long been an open sore to
Europe. The Russians can not be trusted ! It is they who urged on
the Serbs, they who fought, and they who, it seems to me, are
responsible for giving the Turks an opportunity of displaying
their barbarity towards the so-called Christians who, I fear, only
differ from the Turks in name — though I am very sorry for them.
Would it not be wise to settle beforehand how far we intend to allow
the Russians to approach our frontier in India, and while we are
on the best terms with them, declare once and for all that one
stage further in that direction would be war ? Would it not prevent
their attempting to annoy us in those quarters? and would it
not be a very harmless measure ?

A month later (October 23, 1876) she wrote :

There seems to be a little pause in the state of Eastern affairs.
What alarms me sometimes is the vague fear or feeling that Russia

141

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1876 may get the better of everyone, and manage to get her own way
in everything! Her own way in all things is not good for England's
interests. Are people in England quite alive to all the danger ? . . .
Would Russia attack the Turks if the English fleet were in the
Black Sea and Austria and Germany stood aside ? ... Is there
no fear of making it impossible to stop the Russians later if they
are allowed to fight and conquer the Turks just as they please ?
Do you not think that a great decision on the part of the English
would stop their beginning a war, the end of which is impossible
to foresee? Though one may heartily desire to see Turkish
misrule cease in Europe and wish both the Christians and the
Mussulmans a better Government than heretofore, one cannot
wish to see Russia simply in possession of the country and
Constantinople after a bloody war, and free to make difficulties
for England whenever she chooses.

One cannot defend the Turkish cause as a cause, or wish blood
and money to be spent in supporting a Government alike so
corrupt and inhumane, and which offers no guarantee of being
able or willing to carry out reform. If the matter could be settled
for the good of the Turkish population and those of the Princi-
palities against the Turkish and Russian Governments, surely it
would be the right thing ; but how ?

Has Morier ever been heard on the subject? He was very strong
on it in ' 53 and '54, when his excellent reports struck dear Papa
so much!

Bismarck's policy of conciliating Russia had under-
gone no change since the Franco-German War, and Queen
Victoria, writing to the Crown Princess on October 21,
expressed the shrewd opinion that Russia's policy in the
Near East, which aimed finally at the overlordship of the
Balkans and the occupation of Constantinople, was due
in no little measure to the support and tacit approval of
Bismarck. On October 25, 1876, the Crown Princess,
who appears to have misconceived Bismarck's policy,
replied :

I have just received your dear letter of the 2ist with many
thanks. I have shewn it to Fritz and am to tell you from him
142

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

what he thinks, as he supposes you will prefer having an English 1876
letter to a German one and I write our own dear honest language
to you better than he can. You say Germany is with Russia. What
does all this mean after Prince Bismarck's offers, messages and
promises? We have no precise information as to how Germany
is supporting Russia, but from what we can gather from different
well-informed sources we have perceived the German Govern-
ment gradually leaning towards Russia and not towards England
and Austria 1 It is sorely against Prince Bismarck's will and liking,
I am sure, as he does not care for a Russian alliance ; but an alliance
he must have, being in the disagreeable position of having always
to be on his guard against France. This spring he would have
given anything for a hearty response to his overtures 1 He wanted
to know what British policy was going to be and he would have
backed it up — he got no answer, or only what was very vague —
so that he said to himself, as indeed all Germany does, " Oh! there
is no use in reckoning on England or going with her ; she has no
policy, will do nothing and will always hang back, so there is no
help for it but to turn to Russia, though it be only a pis-aller
for a better alliance, and one more congenial to us and more in
harmony with our interests! Austria is too weak, too unsettled,
in too shattered and precarious a state to be any use as an ally.
The only strong Power willing to stand by Germany when she
is in a pinch is Russia, therefore we must, whether we like it or
no, keep on the best terms with her and serve her, so that she may
serve us, as in 1870." Surely Prince Bismarck is not to be blamed
for this ; it is only common prudence and good sense to make
sure of having a strong friend when one is liable to be attacked
any day! If Lord Derby had spoken out in the spring, and if the
Berlin Memorandum had been accepted, matters would now stand
differently. Bismarck wanted England alone to decide the Eastern
Question, play the first part and have the beau role now taken
by Russia, to my intense disgust. I think it is not too late now,
to come to a satisfactory and close understanding with Prince
Bismarck, as at any moment Russia may go even a step further
than Germany can quietly agree to.

I hope that if no peace is come to satisfactorily now, and the
Russians occupy Servia and Montenegro, that then England will
persuade Austria to occupy Bosnia, and England herself send Lord
Napier at the head of the troops to occupy Constantinople, and the

143

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1876 British fleet into the Black Sea. I am certain this would be the very
best thing. There would be no war. Turkey would carry out the
reforms which were enforced ; Germany could, I am sure, back up
Austria and England, and Roumania, which is dying to be sup-
ported by England and Austria, would aid to counterbalance any
overweight of Russia. At last some arrangement could be come
to which would be satisfactory and lasting! Fritz is so very strong
on the matter, that he wished me to say all I could in support of
this view. He has not seen Prince Bismarck lately. Could not a
special letter, message, or person, though none could be so good
as Lord Odo Russell, be despatched to Prince Bismarck ?

It is a signal proof of the innate generosity of the
Crown Princess that in spite of her previous suspicion of
Bismarck she was now inclined to credit him with the
highest motives. She believed that they were " simple and
honest ", and on October 28 again wrote to her mother :

Many thanks for your dear letters by messenger as to the
Eastern question. I can only repeat what I said last time of Bis-
marck's calculations and motives, as far as we are acquainted with
them and can judge of them. I think they are quite simple and
honest. I do not think that one can exactly say that Germany is
assisting Russia, as we know for certain (z.e. through what Field-
Marshal ManteufFel says) that the Emperor Alexander would make
war tomorrow if he could be certain that Germany would " ihm
den Sieg sichern *". This he will not obtain from Germany as far
as we can learn.

We saw a very nice and intelligent officer yesterday (our
Military Attache at Vienna) who has been to Belgrade and in Servia
lately. He gave us most interesting accounts. He says there was
not an atom of enthusiasm for the war in Servia, that the people
and their Sovereign were driven to it against their will, that the
plan originated with Russia, and the party which pushed on the
war, in Russia, was so strong that he did not think the Emperor
Alexander could resist or follow his own inspirations, and thus
the Russians could not stop the movement which has been so long
fermenting and preparing.

It would appear that the chief objection the Austrians have to
144

^/he brown Princess and Uri
iSjb

atn.

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

occupying Bosnia is that, as they have a profound distrust of Russia, 1 876
they do not like acting in common with the Russians for fear of
being afterwards asked by them to give up some Austrian territory
to them, whereas in this respect they have nothing to fear from
England or Germany.

Oh dear what a complicated question it is, and how many new
ones it raises on all sides! One does not see the end of it all! This
same gentleman says that the Turkish infantry is very good, very
well disciplined, brave and enduring — excellent soldiers who do not
even murmur at being kept five months without their pay. Their
artillery and cavalry are said to be very bad indeed, and their
fortresses not worth much.

The British Government now pressed for an armis-
tice, and put forward a policy of local self-government
for the Turkish provinces in the Balkans. There was
much negotiation about the duration of the armistice,
and finally Russia, by a sudden ultimatum to the Porte
on October 31, enforced its limitation to two months,
though it was subsequently extended to March 1877,
when peace was signed between Servia and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the situation had undergone two import-
ant changes. The Sultan Murad had proved incompetent,
if not insane ; and a palace revolution had deposed him
in favour of his brother Abdul Hamid. Moreover, in
England, the force of the " Bulgarian atrocities " agitation
had largely spent itself, and the danger of bringing
Russia into the field was being realised. Russia now
suggested that she should occupy Bulgaria and that
Austria should occupy Bosnia, while the British fleet
should come up to Constantinople in order to bring
further pressure on the Porte. The scheme was rejected
by Britain, but it was agreed that a conference of the
powers should be held at Constantinople to seek a settle-
ment of the question. Lord Salisbury, no friend to

L 145

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 876 Turkey, was appointed the representative of Great Britain.
The acute differences between Great Britain and Russia
were emphasised by Lord Beaconsfield's pronouncement
at the Guildhall on Lord Mayor's Day, 1876, that, while
England was essentially a non-aggressive power, yet her
resources were such that " in a righteous cause England
will commence a fight that will not end until right is
done " ; while the Emperor Alexander stated at Moscow
on the following day that, if he could not obtain the
necessary guarantees from the Porte, he was determined
to act independently.

The Crown Princess, on this occasion an enthusiastic
supporter of Bismarck, was eager to give the German
point of view to her mother, to whom she wrote on
November n :

I really do not think it is fair to say " the great man " has
behaved very badly. At least I see no proofs of it, or of an undue,
or unfair, favouring of the Russians, and I see no obstacle, in him,
to England's and Germany's going together, nor, I am sure, does
he wish for one.

The duplicity of the Russians increases from day to day, and
no one can be a match for them, because no one possesses the art
of saying a thing with so much aplomb and doing the very reverse.
General Werder, who arrived two or three days ago with an auto-
graph letter to the Emperor from the Emperor of Russia, said,
quite simply and openly, that the Court were now going for five
days to Moscow, that it was a most unusual and demonstrative
measure ; but that Moscow was now the centre of the agitation for
war, and that there would be great demonstrations there, to show
the Emperor that he must still adopt more energetic measures.
General "Werder, who is Russian to the backbone, made no secret
of it that the Russians had no intention of having peace, that they
could not stop where the matter now was, and that the warlike
preparations were going on with great energy and rapidity.

What can it all mean ? Evidently they now say, and personages
even think, that is to say, the Emperor does, that they do not want
I4<5

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

Constantinople, but perhaps in a few weeks they will say " Cir- 1876
cumstances have been stronger than we thought, and have forced
us, etc. etc."

I am certain they want to make tributary states of Roumania
and Bulgaria, which will be as good as Russian, then they can
cook up a fresh question whenever it suits them, as they raised
this one, and wantonly pushed the Servians into a war. The next
time, perhaps the Russians will find the opportunity for taking
Constantinople better. The choice of Lord Salisbury seems to be
an excellent one, as he is a clever, quick and energetic man. . . .

On his way to the Conference, which began on
December 12, 1876, Lord Salisbury visited in succession
Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Rome. At Berlin he was wel-
comed by the Emperor, the Crown Prince and Princess
and Bismarck. In course of an interview with Bismarck
Lord Salisbury learnt that the German Chancellor in-
tended Germany to be neutral between Turkey and
Russia. " Another argument in the same sense ", wrote
Lord Salisbury to Lord Derby on November 25, 1876,
" I draw from the assertions of the Crown Princess. She
is shrewd, behind the scenes, and hates Bismarck like
poison : and she said several times with much energy,
* You may be quite sure that it is true that Bismarck
wishes for peace *. Both she and the Crown Prince ex-
pressed themselves anti-Russian."1 From these inter-
views Lord Salisbury came to the conclusion that while
Bismarck wished for war between Russia and Turkey,
which would diminish the fighting power of Russia, he
dreaded a war between England and Russia because
German neutrality would be difficult.

The Conference met on December 23. Simultane-
ously the new Sultan promulgated a liberal constitution.

1 Life of Robert^ Marquis of Salisbury, by Lady Gwendolen
Cecil, vol. ii. p. 99.

147

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1877 Relying on this gesture and on the divisions between the
powers, he successfully resisted their demands. A month
later, on January 20, 1877, this impotent Conference was
dissolved.

Russia's action immediately after the abortive con-
ference was puzzling. Whilst preparations were being
made for war on Turkey, she professed to maintain the
European concert, and in March, General Ignatieff, the
Russian delegate at the Conference and Ambassador in
Constantinople, began a series of visits to the capitals of
Europe to explain the Tsar's readiness to continue his
co-operation with the other powers. From Paris the
Russian general and diplomatist proceeded on March 14
to London, where he was hospitably received during his
week's stay. Whilst Ignatieff was in Paris, the Crown
Princess, unaware of his plans, wrote to her mother
(March 10) :

I am rather sorry IgnatiefT did not go to England ; it would
perhaps have taken his vanity down a litde and it is always good
and useful to hear what he has to say. If only all the Governments
together would agree to what the Russians now want! It would
not be a dangerous or compromising thing and would satisfy the
Russians and in their eyes save their honour, so that they need
not go to war — it would save so many poor innocent creatures on
both sides from being killed, and certainly [be] the best thing for
the Christians in Turkey. The war once begun, no one can tell
where it would stop, and who might not be drawn into it. I am
so convinced that the fate of the world is now in the hands of
Europe and that the guarantee asked for by the Russians could so
easily be given, as it would be more or less a matter of form, an
Ehrenrettung for the Russians who have got into a scrape, and
no one acts contrary to their own interests in this case by helping
them out. It would also be the best thing for the Turks, as it
would save them from a ruinous war, and make them set about
their reforms in good earnest, which of course they never will
do unless they see that they must. This is also the Emperor's
148

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

opinion and that of a distinguished Frenchman whom we saw the 1877
other day.

England was now quite willing to act with the other
powers in their endeavour to reform Turkey, provided
that Russia and Turkey, between whom war seemed
probable, agreed to disarm. If that guarantee were forth-
coming, England was prepared to urge anew on the Porte
a joint protocol of domestic reform.

Meanwhile, the British Ambassador at Constantinople
had found himself in disagreement with the British Gov-
ernment, and Lord Beaconsfield's choice for a successor
fell on Austen Henry Layard, who had every sympathy
with the government's vigorous policy.

At this period Bismarck was ill, and deeply mortified
by the decreasing support afforded in Germany to his
domestic policy. Up to then the Chancellor's resignations
had not been numerous, and the cry of "Wolf" still
created alarm. On April 7, 1877, Lord Odo Russell
wrote to Lord Derby :

DEAR LORD DERBY — I have told you in a despatch all about
the crisis, which is simply that Bismarck is really nervous and in
want of rest — and the Emperor reluctant to part with him al-
together. Besides physical ill-health, Bismarck is morally upset by
the decreasing support his policy suffers from, on the part of the
Emperor and of Parliament, which he attributes to the Empress's
hostile influence on his Majesty, and to the Pope's influence on the
Catholic Party in Parliament, instead of simply attributing it to his
very disagreeable manner of dealing with his Sovereign and his
supporters, and to the violence of his dealing with his opponents.
"What he wants is the power to turn out his colleagues from the
new Cabinet at his pleasure — a power this Emperor will never
concede to his Chancellor. At Court on Thursday last the Emperor
told me he would give him as much leave as he pleased, but would
not let him resign. The Empress told me Bismarck must be taught
to obey his Sovereign. The Crown Prince told me he deplored the
situation, but could not venture to interfere since his father never

149

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1877 consulted him. The Crown Princess told me she could settle it all
in five minutes if she had her own way. The Grand Duchess of
Baden told me she could cry to see her father so worried at eighty.
The Grand Duke of Baden told me he found Bismarck intractable.
Princess Bismarck told me her husband's health was more precious
to her than his post, and the Emperor could not expect him to
commit suicide by working himself to death. Other well-informed
people told me that Bismarck would probably accept leave and
return to his office next winter as usual. No one will know much
more about it until the German Parliament meets again, I imagine.
The final signature of the Protocol has given great satisfaction to
everyone at Berlin from the Emperor downwards. Peace is believed
to be possible as far as Russia is concerned, but the attitude of
Turkey does not yet inspire confidence, and the departure of the
Turkish Envoy for Russia to settle about demobilisation is anxiously
looked forward to. The Emperor told me on Thursday that he
hoped Mr. Layard would soon be at Constantinople, as England
alone could persuade the Porte to be reasonable and peaceful. I
always thought Layard the right man for Turkey and am delighted
at his appointment. I hope he will advise the Porte to pay their
debts out of the money saved by demobilisation and persuade them
to mend their ways, moral and material.

The signature of the Protocol has placed us en regie with Europe
and we can no longer be held responsible for the coming war, if the
Turks will not accept the friendly counsels of the Powers, although
I confess I do not see how any Government can stand the per-
manent moral interference of six well-meaning friends without
going mad 1 Job found three too many.

All hopes of accommodation on such lines as these,
however, were dispelled by Russia's declaration of war
on Turkey on April 24, 1877. A week later (May 3) the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I can well imagine how very anxious you must be about
the Oriental question. That Russia has a purpose and makes the
protection of the Christians her pretext is certain. Some very well-
informed people, who know a great deal about the Russians, have
told me that the Russians wanted the Dardanelles and nothing else —
upon which I replied " It is the very thing they will never get."
150

BISiMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

Whether the Emperor Alexander has been forced into this war 1877
by a party, as Napoleon III. was into the last war, I cannot quite
make out. I am only so afraid that Gortchakoff, Ignatieff, and other
candid statesmen of this kind, are urging King Victor Emanuel to
try and get a part of the Italian Tyrol from the Austrians, and the
Austrians would fight for that to the last.

I do trust this would not he ; the bulk of the Italians would
much dislike this, as they have so many interests in the East,
commerce, etc. . . . and their merchants are important people in
Turkey, and in all the East and the Levant, where their tongue is
spoken! If there be a means of preventing the Russians from
taking what they must not have, by the combination of all the
other Powers together, and without the other Powers fighting, it
would be the best thing. If France, Germany, Austria, England
and Italy were to say together : you shall not have the Dardanellesl
But, of course, I do not know how that could be done.

There seems to be no other preventive to a great conflagration
than a firm combination of the other Powers, and that is quite
easy for England to obtain.

Poor Marie,1 how wretched for her all that is! I feel so sorry
for her ; and poor AfRe 2 must be very unhappy too.

During Lord Salisbury's visit to Berlin in November
1876 Bismarck had suggested to him that England should
occupy Egypt, but the proposal met with short shrift from
Disraeli, who " didn't see how it would benefit us ",
especially " if Russia possessed Constantinople ". Bis-
marck, still keen to embroil England with France, now
made the same suggestion to the Crown Princess, who
promptly wrote to her mother (July n, 1877) :

The Oriental war is much talked of everywhere ; all lovers of
England are so anxious that this opportunity should not pass by,
of gaining a firm footing in Egypt! It would be such an essential,
wise, useful thing. Perhaps you remember how pleased all who
wish England well were, when the shares of the Suez Canal were
bought, because everybody thought it was the first step towards

1 The Duchess of Edinburgh. 2 The Duke of Edinburgh.

151

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1877 what appears the wisest policy in the real interest of England, and
her rule in India. No one can understand why the present Cabinet
hesitate so long to take a step which seems so evident an advantage,
and which England would often regret later, should the present
opportunity be missed. ... I must say I devoutly hope and pray
that Egypt may be ours, as I foresee so much good from such a
change, both for the unhappy ill-used population who deserve
better government, better masters and better treatment, and for
the development of agriculture, of trade ; commerce then will
open up many a new source of riches, and the land is so fertile. I
think England has a great mission there, and a firm future would
be secured to Egypt itself. How I wish this could be done in
your reign! Who can it harm ?

I hear some people in England think that Prince Bismarck has
an arriere-pensee when he expresses his conviction that England
ought to take Egypt He has no other arriere-pensee, but that he
considers a strong England of great use in Europe, and one can
only rejoice that he thinks and feels so. As to a wish to annex
Holland, and let France take Belgium, I assure you that it is
nothing but a myth^ and a very ridiculous one. Everybody who
knows the state of things here thoroughly, knows that nobody of
importance ever entertained so wild and crazy an idea. . . »

Queen Victoria,, before replying, sent the letter on to
Lord Beaconsfield, who commented (July 16) that the
letter " might have been dictated by Prince Bismarck. If
the Queen of England wishes to undertake the govern-
ment of Egypt, Her Majesty does not require the sugges-
tion, or permission, of Prince Bismarck. At this moment
Lord Beaconsfield understands that there is an offer from
the Porte to sell its suzerainty of Egypt, Crete and Cyprus
to Your Majesty. It has not been formally placed before
the Foreign Office, but of the fact there is no doubt."

The following day Queen Victoria replied to the
Crown Princess :

... I will now answer your letter of the nth, relative to
Egypt, the proposal about which coming from you has indeed sur-

152

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

prised me very much, and seems to me Bismarck's view. Neither 1877
Turkey or Egypt have done anything to offend us. Why should we
make a wanton aggression, such as the taking of Egypt would be ?
It is not our custom to annex countries (as it is in some others) unless
we are obliged, and forced to do so, as in the case of the Transvaal
Republic. Prince Bismarck would probably like us to seize Egypt,
as it would be giving a great slap in the face of France, and be
taking a mean advantage of her inability to protest. It would be a
most greedy action. I own I catit for a moment understand your
suggesting it. What we intend to do we shall do without Prince
Bismarck's permission, for he has repeatedly mentioned it to Lord
Odo Russell. Buying the Suez shares is quite another thing. That
was more or less a commercial transaction. How can we protest
against Russia s doings, if we do the same ourselves ?

Four days later the Crown Princess replied :

... I am very sorry I was so misunderstood about Egypt.
Of course I did not mean that a " wanton aggression " on an un-
offending friend should be made, nor an annexation; but that
virtually England's influence should be paramount there (under
one form or another) both for the benefit of England's interests
and for the happiness of an oppressed and unfortunate people.
This wish has been one which many many English, both military
men and others, have entertained before this war was thought of,
and I think that they certainly did not think so because it was a
" view of Bismarck's", any more than / did! How and when
such a thing could come to pass, is, of course, quite another thing.
That English influence should be stronger in the East than Russian
seems to me desirable in more than one way, and any distrust of
Prince Bismarck (should he share this opinion) would not make
me change my view of the subject. . . .

Events in the Balkans now again claimed all attention.
The dramatic progress of the Russian troops towards
Constantinople received in July an almost miraculous
check by the heroic resistance at Plevna of a Turkish
army under Osman Pasha. The world was astounded at
this sudden recovering of " the sick man of Europe ", and

153

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1877 Russia was now in a dilemma. To go forward was im-
possible whilst Osman Pasha stood barring the way, and
honour would not permit a retreat On October 19,
1877, the Crown Prince wrote to Queen Victoria :

... It is with a feeling of horror that I notice the approach of
winter — whilst the thinned armies of Russia and Turkey are still
opposed to each other, looking forward with eagerness to a decisive
battle.

This dreadful war, planned in a spirit of haughtiness and decided
upon for a long time, impresses everyone with the importance of
two failings, Le. to be in the wrong and to underrate the strength of
one*s adversary*

The Russians would not forgive Germany the successes in great
wars and the re-establishment of our national power ; they looked
out therefore for an opportunity to gain easy victories and to revive
the belief in the " nimbus " of Russian strength. This was — to my
fullest belief — the chief motive which led to the sowing of so much
mischief that at length the war, for which long preparations had
been made, became inevitable in spite of the Emperor's own will.
" Slavs *' and " Christians " are in this question only the means to
serve a totally different end and object.

And now the poor Czar, who is in truth a lover of peace, is
placed in the midst of his troops, without commanding them ; he
must witness, for months, the most dreadful carnage without obtain-
ing success ; he is unable to conclude peace, because the honour of
the Russian arms will not allow it.

It may be assumed that quite in the end the Russian superiority
of numbers and resources generally will enable them to get the
better of the Turks, but I am at a loss to think what sort of com-
pensation they may find for their horrible losses.

Since I have been fated to witness three wars, I feel myself a
real horror whenever I hear of fresh campaigns, and it requires
truly an effort on my part to hear, and study, the details of the war
reports. "When we ourselves had to fight, our enemies were, to the
greatest part, civilised people who — in spite of wild passions being
let loose — were always anxious to observe the precepts of humanity,
but here in the East, the contending forces are led by fanaticism and
love of destruction combined with religious infatuation.

154

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, jgyi-iSyS

The Turks — it must be said — stand up for the defence of their 1877
own homes; and this fact enlists for their cause a good deal of sym-
pathy which otherwise they would not deserve. Having looked
forward, with perfect resignation, to the collapse of their domina-
tion in Europe — the Turks themselves are struck by their unfore-
seen successes, as well as the rest of the world.

Osman Pasha's brilliant resistance of five months came
to an end on December 10, and with the fall of Plevna
the Russians had a clear road to Constantinople with
scarcely a barrier in the way. British feeling against
Russia now rose to fever heat, and the " Jingo " cry for
war rang through the country.

Servia, elated at the Russian success, again declared
war on Turkey (December 14, 1877), and it seemed as if
Gladstone's fiery demand that the Turk should be swept
" bag and baggage " from Europe was like to be accom-
plished by Russia. On December 17 the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

. . , What do you say to the Servians rising now that Turkey
is in such distress! The very thought of the cruel way in which
Turkey has been fallen upon, forced into war and half crushed,
for no other purpose and no other reason than the Russian jealousy
of German military success during the last war, and to gratify
Russian ambition and vanity, makes one quite ill! It seems so
unjust!

I wonder whether poor Osman Pasha is taken great care of
and has all his wants ; he behaved so heroically. The Turkish
government seem as unwise as possible and hamper the army in
every way.

The prospect of Constantinople being occupied by
the Russians was one that caused alarm on many sides,
and to the demand that England should intervene the
Crown Princess added her voice. On December 19 she
wrote to Queen Victoria :

... As regards politics — what can one say! Oh! if I could

155

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1877 only see you for one half-hour to say what fills my heart and soul!
//"England does not assert herself powerfully — she will do herself
a harm which perhaps people living in happy England hardly can
realise! Ridicule and contempt England can very well stand and
laugh at the ignorance of the benighted people that know no
better; but England cannot afford, or rather ought not, to lose
her position in Europe. The feeling is so strong now abroad that
England is quite powerless, has no army, a fleet that is no use,
because naval battles are past, has no statesmen, and cares for
nothing more than making money, because she is too weak to have
a will, and if she had one, she has no power of enforcing it! How
I do long for one good roar of the British Lion from the housetops
and for the thunder of a British broadside! God knows I have seen
enough of war, to know how horrible, how wicked, how shocking
it is, and how worse than sinful those who bring it on without a
reason, and plunge thousands into misery and despair! But are
not dignity, Honour, and one's reputation things for which a nation,
like an individual, must be ready to sacrifice ease, wealth, and even
blood and life itself!

My experience of politics and things in general on the continent,
and a careful observation of them, has led mo. to the/rm conviction
that England is far in advance of all other countries in the scale
of civilisation and progress, the only one that understands Liberty
and possesses Liberty, the only one that understands true progress,
that can civilise and colonise far distant lands, that can develop
commerce and consequently prosperity, the only really happy, the
only really free, and, above all, the only really humane country, that
will give so readily, so generously, and so wisely to alleviate
suffering, be it ever so far off from sight! Surely then for the good
of us all, for the good of the world, and not only of Europe, England
should assert herself, make herself be listened to!

In this Turkish and Russian war, of course there are two
opinions everywherel One wishes Turkey to disappear and therefore
will let Russia do the work of annihilation ; the other thinks a
nation, however corruptly and badly governed, ought not to be
wiped out by one power, without the others being heard! To
invite Turkey to reform her ways, and force her to do so, would
have been better than making war in this shameful way. But now
for Russia and Turkey to make a separate peace, without England
being even consulted — I should think a downright insult and a

156

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

fatal blow to English interests! If England suffer in her prestige, 1877
vis-a-vis of Europe, what does she in the eyes of Oriental nations ! !
and what will the 80 millions of fighting men — England's subjects
in India — think, if the Mother country stirs not a finger now!!

There is a school in England that thinks she should not pretend
to be a great Power, but subside into one of a second order and
interfere no more in wars, etc. This may be true, but then England
ought not to possess half -the world, as she does now\ and woe
to the world when England abdicates the leadership and the pre-
eminence as the champion of Liberty and progress!

England can surely have troops enough from India that can
fight better than the Turks even, and are a match for any number
of Russians!

If Russia be allowed, she will become the lane of the world!
She must have some one Power to keep her in check, she does not
represent Liberty, progress, enlightenment, humaneness and civilisa-
tion, but if she got too strong, and a man like the old Napoleon
ever were born there, she would indeed be a terrible danger. That
is the only power to fear, not poor Germany that can never, or ought
never to grow out of her own confines.

We hear that the Servians have been pressed very hard by the
Russians to assist, and that Charles of Roumania does not wish
to carry on the war any farther!

I suppose British ships could prevent Batoum being taken. I
hope, dearest Mama, you will burn this immediately and not be
angry with me for saying all this so openly ; I can say it to no
one else!

I hear everybody here is very Russian ; we did not find it so on
the Rhine. I avoid the subject here with everyone! I cannot help
feeling so much for Alfred and Marie, it must be so painful for
them!

I cannot understand the Times ; it seems to me to take a strange
view of things. How much I think of you and what your feelings
must be throughout!

Prince Bismarck has become a myth, he is neither seen nor
heard of.

The fortunes of Turkey had now become a matter of
party politics in England, and Lord Beaconsfield, whose
sympathy with the Turks was no secret, decided that

157

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

2878 England should come to Turkey's rescue : a policy that
by no means pleased the whole of the conservative party.
The division of opinion in the Cabinet was notorious,
and when it was decided to send the British fleet to pro-
tect Constantinople, the order was cancelled the following
day. Lord Derby disliked the whole policy, and it was
said that he and Lord Carnarvon intended to resign. On
January 25 the Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

... As to politics, was ever anything more distressing! The
Russians — I have no fit word for them — are using every endeavour
to make the world believe that the armistice has only been pre-
vented by the English intervention, and that England is responsible
for all the bloodshed. They are evidently pushing on to Con-
stantinople as hard as they can. The leading article in the Daily
Telegraph of the 21 st I think exactly hit upon the truth I What
terrible complications! "We know for certain that the Greeks have
had direct and peremptory orders to rise and fight those unhappy
Turks — these wretched Servians the same.

My Father-in-law is more Russian than can be described, and
though the generality of the officers of the Guard are so too, there
are many in Germany and even here, who dislike and distrust the
Russians with all their heart and grieve at the success of their false
lying policy and their ambitions and violent schemes. The Empress
and I often sit and lament. The accusations of the Russian press
against England are really in language of a violence which is
beyond all bounds. ... If only the British fleet went to Con-
stantinople, and an armed force were sent to Gallipoli and Con-
stantinople and ships to the Dardanelles, it would stop the Russians,
who seem to reckon on England's doing nothing, and who grow
more daring and insolent day by day! I am almost certain that
in this way they would be obliged to desist from going to Con-
stantinople, which they at present intend to do. We (England)
have still time to get there before them, still in our hands to
enforce a fair peace, but it is the very last hour, and in a few days
it will be too late, and ever will England regret it when Russia
has completely absorbed Turkey, and then at any moment can
make an alliance with the French and seize upon the Suez Canal
and stop our road to India!

158

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

I feel sure that if the fleet had only been sent to Constantinople 1878
directly after Plevna, the Russians would have stopped short and
many a poor wretch be still alive, who has died a cruel death. If
a force under Lord Napier were landed in Constantinople in a
short while we could settle the terms of peace much easier, and
I think that not a drop of English blood would be shed, nor one
precious life lost, because our presence and our firmness would
bring the Russians to their senses.

We have just heard a report that Lord Derby and Lord Car-
narvon are going to resign, but of course we do not know whether
it is founded! Anything that means action and decided and prompt
action is good at this present critical time, and anything that is
the reverse I cannot but regret, as we shall be damaging our
interests in a terrible way.

Here I suppose they will do nothing whatever happens. I feel
so much for you in this time of anxiety without dear Papa at
your side to share the work and the responsibility and help you
in every way! But you have clearly seen where the danger was
from the beginning, and I hope will have the satisfaction of seeing
the right course taken and Europe freed from the illusion that
England will not and cannot stir a finger in any question, any
more, but has abdicated her former position altogether.

Five days later the Princess, now, as she wrote, " in a
perpetually pugilistic frame of mind", heard of the
counter order to the British fleet at Malta, and promptly
wrote (January 30) :

... As to politics I am in horror and despair! The counter
order to the fleet has had such a deplorable effect — and all the
enemies of England laugh and rub their hands and are delighted,
whereas the friends of England are convinced that Russia is telling
fresh lies and playing fresh tricks, that the armistice is all humbug,
that they are pressing on to Constantinople and not telling England
the truth about the terms of peace! I am afraid this is very likely.
IgnatiefF, of course, behaves as badly as possible, Prince Reuss,
in his way, also. Count Schuvaloff appears to be anxious to con-
ciliate and do his best. Lord Augustus Lofrus seems to be alive
to Russia's designs, and Count Munster uses every endeavour to
make English policy appear in its very best light, at which the

159

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 Emperor is very very angry (and many others) and think him " zu
Englisch" and anti-Russian. Austria's game I cannot penetrate.
The Austrian press has been very rude and bitter against England
and the Russian press knows no bounds in its abuse of England.

Here there is a story that the British fleet turned back from
the Dardanelles, because one Turkish gun was fired, and the
Turks will not have the English! Of course we know how false
that is.

Poor Sadullah Bey said to me last night, at the Court Ball —
when I could not help telling him how sorry I felt for him and his
countrymen — " Notre seul espoir est 1'Angleterre *'. The more I
hear and the more time passes, the more I regret the English fleet
and British troops not being at Constantinople and Gallipoli and
the Dardanelles long before this! I feel sure it would have
frightened the Russians into their senses, and made them amenable,
if not to reason — yet to the demand of fairer terms of peace ;
whereas now — they will please themselves.

I do not like to reproach the peace party in England with want
of patriotism and with great selfishness — and I am certain they
have not an idea of the harm they are doing their country abroad.
It is not only that they cause British policy to be called weak,
vacillating and bungling, but it gives a totally wrong impression
of England's power and England's regard for her own dignity
and interests!

I hope I am not very wrong in saying all this, but as a devoted
and loyal British heart, mine feels bitterly the taunts and sneers
and the tone which people dare to assume about a country so
vastly superior to all others in every sense, and which consequently
ought to take the lead and make Itself listened to.

I know you feel all this and must be troubled and anxious
beyond measure.

I am perpetually in a pugilistic frame of mind, as I have to
hear and read so much which is hardly bearable, because one
cannot have the satisfaction of knocking somebody down.

Three weeks later, in February 1878, the Crown Prin-
cess wrote to Queen Victoria :

. . . Things look very bad indeed in politics. Alas! the
Russians think themselves a match for the English twice over, but
160

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

not for England and an ally, and to get this ally seems to me so im- 1878
portant! Whether the Austrians are to be relied on is so doubtful
and difficult to know! Prince Bismarck has, however, no wish
whatever to see everyone quarrelling as you say, and on the con-
trary he must not quarrel with Russia, but can only regret any-
thing that strengthens her or weakens England's power. This is
self-evident and needs no explanation, he would be a madman to
wish anything else. I fancy he is of opinion that it is the worst
moment for England to go to war, and that the time is past, when
it would have been useful and likely to lead to a result, i.e. to stop
Russia's proceedings, which Austria and England might have done
some time ago ! . . .

Meanwhile, on February 13, the order to the British
fleet at Malta to proceed to Constantinople was repeated,
and this time carried into effect, but five days later it was
ordered to leave Constantinople for a station thirty-five
miles south of the city. The Treaty of San Stefano was
signed on March 3, 1878, after an armistice had been
concluded, and by its articles Servia was declared inde-
pendent and Bulgaria created an autonomous principality
under the sphere of Russian influence.

Three weeks later Lord Derby, who had always been
out of sympathy with the Government policy, resigned,
and was succeeded by Lord Salisbury. British policy, no
longer directed by a divided Cabinet, was galvanised into
strong action, and Lord Salisbury not only demanded in
a masterly circular that the Treaty of San Stefano should
be submitted to the judgment of Europe, but showed he
was in earnest by announcing that 7000 Indian troops
were under orders for Malta. Although naturally Russia
strongly objected, the other European powers supported
Lord Salisbury's proposal and after much negotiation a
conference was agreed to. The news of Lord Derby's
resignation and the terms of Lord Salisbury's circular to
M 161

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 the powers elated the Crown Princess, and to her mother
she wrote on April 5 :

Indeed since Lord Derby's resignation and Lord Salisbury's
Circular, one can hold up one's head again, and no longer feel
oppressed by the weight of anxiety and misgiving about what
may be coming! Now we know that England has a policy, and
that it is a clear and right one, and this has already changed the
aspect of the whole question.

Except amongst the sworn friends of Russia, I think there is
universal approval of England's step and England's views, and
everywhere a feeling of relief that at last England should have come
forward and spoken up. In Austria they are delighted, and what
the unfortunate Turks and other principalities must feel, I can well
imagine! What a blessing for them all to feel that their fates are not
to be settled by Russia alone, whose treacherous behaviour to them
all has opened their eyes as to the nature of Russia's aims. Neither
England nor Austria can be lent on war; but they must not
shrink from it, if it be forced upon them.

I cannot help thinking that the Russians will draw back and
give way, and that the whole may yet be satisfactorily settled
without a war.

I cannot help congratulating you on the turn affairs have taken.
How much easier you must feel now. Poor Lord Derby seems
to have been treated with so much kindness and consideration,
that one cannot pity him! Oh, how much he has to answer for,
and how vast is the harm his indecision did! ...

I wish you could see the articles of the Augslurger Allgemeine
Zeitung) the Kolnische Zeitung and the Journal des Delats just
now, as it is interesting to see how good and beneficial an effect
Lord Salisbury's Circular has had. . . .

In May the Powers accepted Bismarck's offer to act
as "honest broker ", and preparations were made to
summon the Congress of Berlin.

During the preliminary discussions that took place
before the Congress met, the main points were agreed to.
Russia consented to divide the big Bulgaria of the San
162

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

Stefano Treaty into two provinces, and Austria gave 1878
her consent on the condition she should be allowed to
occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina. The way was now
clear for Bismarck to issue the formal invitations for the
Congress of Berlin, and on Sunday, June 2, 1878, the
German Ambassador in London, Count Munster, handed
to the Foreign Secretary, Lord Salisbury, at the latter's
house at Hatfield, Prince Bismarck's official invitation to
Great Britain to take part in the Berlin Congress on
June 13. The chief guests under the Foreign Secretary's
roof at that moment happened to be the Crown Prince
and Princess of Germany, who had come over from
Marlborough House, where they were returning the visit
which the Prince and Princess of Wales had paid them at
Potsdam earlier in the year. The tranquil feeling which
the invitation evoked was, however, rudely shattered
within a few hours by the arrival of news of the attempted
assassination of the Crown Prince's father, Emperor
William I. The Crown Prince and Princess at once
left for Germany. The Emperor proved to be severely,
though not fatally, wounded, and the Crown Prince on
reaching Berlin was invested with the Regency of the
German Empire. It was while the Crown Prince exer-
cised this responsibility that the Congress of Berlin
performed its work. The Crown Prince's liberal aspira-
tions had little opportunity of practical exercise during
his short term of power, and the potent will of Prince
Bismarck, who resolutely clung to office, remained in the
ascendant.

By July 13 the Congress of Berlin had concluded its
labours. Heavy work had fallen on the shoulders of Lord
Beaconsfield, England's chief envoy, who had many op-
portunities of meeting the Crown Princess. On the day

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 on which the Congress dissolved, the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

The Congress has ended its labours! I am only so afraid that
the hurry to get over the work has been too great, and that the
durability may suffer ; it has been driven on with such desperate
haste by Prince Bismarck, and that is not good! These matters
are too serious to stand a hasty treatment. Nobody can rejoice
more heartily and sincerely than I do at the Treaty with Turkey,
and the occupation of the Isle of Cyprus! Amongst all friends of
England this has produced the very best impression, and many of
the German newspapers have praised the measure very much.

I think it will be excellent, and trust the once so flourishing
island will become so again, and that it may be a means of making
the poor Turks govern better and get their unhappy devastated
country into better order, and be a wholesome check to the
Russians who will feel that they are watched, and cannot " get up "
another war — as they have done this.

I am sure you too must feel happy and relieved that it has all
ended so ; if England is known to be ever vigilant and ever on
the alert, and determined NOT to be trifled with, and has all her
means ready at hand, her forces, etc., the peace of Europe will
not, and cannot be disturbed again so soon ! It has been a capital
thing that the Foreign Ministers of different nations have made
each other's acquaintance, it will make written communication a
very different thing in future I Prince Bismarck is much struck
and pleased with Lord Beaconsfield.

Just before the Congress dissolved, Lord Beaconsfield
wrote and told the Prince of Wales of the secret arrange-
ment by which Britain undertook the defence of the re-
maining Asiatic dominions of the Porte and was allowed to
occupy Cyprus, while the Sultan promised to give effect
to the necessary reforms for the protection of Christians.
" England ", die Prime Minister wrote, " enters into
a defensive alliance with Turkey as respects all her
Asiatic dominions, and with the consent of the Sultan we
occupy the island of Cyprus. It is the key of Asia, and
164

BISMARCK AND RUSSIA, 1871-1878

is near to Egypt. Malta is too far for a military base for 1878
these purposes." l

The Anglo-Turkish Convention — details of which
were published two days after Lord Beaconsfield sent
the Prince of Wales the news of it — although it dis-
concerted the friends of France, was warmly welcomed
by the Crown Princess, who wrote to her mother on
July 1 6 :

I am all impatience to hear from you after the event of the
Turko-English Convention and the occupation of Cyprus. I think
it such a great event, and as I already wrote, one which must give
pleasure to all friends of England I Lord Beaconsfield has indeed
won laurels, made himself a name, and before all restored to his
country the prestige of power and dignity it had so lost on the
continent, thanks to Lord Derby and Mr. Gladstone. You must
feel intense gratification after all the anxiety and worry you went
through! I was very sorry to take leave of Lord Beaconsfield, who
certainly has a great charm when one sees more of him, and of
Lord Salisbury, who is such a truly amiable man! The others, alas,
— I saw little or nothing of! SchuvalorT is much pleased at the
result of the Congress. Prince Gortschakoff not at all. The
Roumanians went away deeply disappointed and dejected — but I
do not see how anything else could have been obtained for them
after they had once placed their fate in Russia's hands! I was
very glad to see Sir Henry Elliot, whom I had not seen since
1857

The Emperor looks very well, but he is still weak and the
doctors will not fix a day for letting him go out — or move here,
etc. . . . They leave it to him, and I think it such a pity, for he
is not the least inclined to leave Berlin, and his strength will never
increase here.

I think the Empress looking well ; but I hope she will be able
to return to Baden and her cure soon! 2

Within a few months the Emperor was well enough to

1 Sir S. Lee, Life of King Edward, vol. i. p. 437.

2 Partly published in Buckle and Monypenny's Life of Disraeli,
vol. vi. pp. 344-345-

I65

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 resume the duties of his office, and on December 5, 1878,
the Crown Prince relinquished the Regency. Nine years
later he was to take up the full burden of sovereignty on
the death of his veteran father, but it was during these
short six months alone that the Crown Prince really
tasted the joys of ruling.

166

CHAPTER VI

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

HOWEVER pressing affairs of state may be, however 1878
dramatic and enthralling the events through which a
nation is passing, the main interests of a wife and mother
are the affairs of her family, and to this rule the Crown
Princess was no exception. Not only towards her husband
and children did she show every sign of loving affection,
but towards her brothers and sisters and their children
she displayed an equal depth of feeling. Her letters are
full of tender references to this or that niece or nephew,
and nothing interested her so much as the love affair or
wedding of any one of her numerous relatives. It was
thus with peculiar happiness that she welcomed to Berlin,
in the February of 1878, her brothers, the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of Connaught, on the occasion of a double
marriage in the German royal family. The first was 'that
of the second daughter of the Emperor's nephew, Prince
Frederick Charles of Prussia, to Frederick Augustus, the
heir to the Grand Duke of Oldenburg. But even more
interesting to the Crown Princess and her brothers and
sisters was the marriage of the Princess's eldest daughter,
the Princess Charlotte of Prussia, to the hereditary Prince
Bernhard of Saxe-Meiningen. The double wedding was
celebrated on February 18, 1878, with an exhausting
ceremonial that lasted more than six hours.

167

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 The Emperor [wrote the Prince of Wales to Queen Victoria
on February 20] is looking wonderfully well, and in a few days
he will be eighty-two. Vicky and Fritz are most blooming. It is
impossible to find two nicer boys than William and Henry, and
they are continually with us, for Fritz and Vicky have so much to
do. Dear little Charlotte looked charming at the wedding, like a
fresh little rose.1

That same day the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria :

I begin my letter this morning to finish it tomorrow morning,
if I possibly canl I have just received your very dear letter, for
which so many thanks, as well as the beautiful locket, which will
be so very precious to me, especially as a sign of your being here
with us in thought today. I feel very low, as you can imagine,
and try not to think of it all! Charlotte is quite unconcerned, and
very happy, especially delighted to see Bertie and Arthur. How
lovely the locket is, and the Angel on it, and how nice to have
their two photos inside! This kind and charming gift gives me
so much pleasure! You asked yesterday by telegraph whether
the young people go to Potsdam tonight. It is impossible and
would be too fatiguing for them, as the wedding is so late in the
evening, and the Fetes begin tomorrow and continue till Saturday,
so they will live at the Schloss in an apartment prepared for them,
which is very handsome, and which I have tried to make as com-
fortable as possible! Yesterday there were a great many arrivals,
and there was also the signing of the wedding contract. The
other Brautpaar are not looking at all well, Elizabeth 2 is so thin
and pale and feels leaving her home very much, though it was
a wretchedly uncomfortable one. Still the idea of going off to
Oldenburg seems to make her very sad. I believe it is a very ugly
and very dull place, and neither the Grand Duke nor the Grand
Duchess is very attractive.

To this letter the Princess added a long postscript
the next morning, which ran :

I have got up, beloved Mama, to finish my letter to you, as last

1 Sir Sidney Lee, Life of King Edward TIL vol. i. pp. 431-432.

2 Daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia.
168

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

night at 12 when I reached my room I felt so upset and miserable 1878
that I should only have written nonsense. How your dear tele-
grams touched me I cannot say! I knew your thoughts would be
with us. ... At 4 in the afternoon the dressing began, and as I
dressed Charlotte while I was dressing myself it was rather a long
and rambling business. She really looked very pretty — in the silver
moire train, the lace, the orange and myrtle and the veil (dangerous
innovations for here) — but they were all very well taken by the
Emperor and Empress! For the manage civil which took place
in our drawing room there were heaps of people, such as did
not wish to go to the Schloss. Herr von Schleinitz's address
to the young couple was very fine, touching and impressive!
After this the signing was done and they were married. Charlotte
said she felt quite light and happy now it was over and would
not mind the rest of the ceremonies at the Schloss ! I then led her
downstairs — and drove off with her — in a carriage with eight horses
and all the grooms carrying torches! At the Schloss all the cere-
monies went off according to the programme you have seen! It
was very very long, very hot, very tiring, and almost too serious,
solemn and heavy for a wedding, but so it always is here. After
the Fackeltan^ * I took her to her room after the Crown had been
taken off, I helped her to undress and get ready for going to bed,
and with an aching heart left her, no more mine now, to care for
and watch and take care of, but another's, and that is a hard wrench
for a mother. With pangs of pain we bring them into this world,
with bitter pain we resign them to others for life, to independence
— and to shift for themselves. We bore the one for their sakes
and with pleasure — and so must we the other.

When I came back last night and looked into her little empty
room — and empty bed — where every night I have kissed her
before lying down myself — I felt very miserable. However it must
be so — and she looks very happy — and shed not a tear yesterday,
and Bernhard dotes upon her. ... I am sure she is thankful
the wedding ceremony is over! It all went off very well we may
say, and that is a thing to be thankful for. How we missed you
and how I thought of adored Papa and Grandmama and Aunt
Feodor and all beloved ones whose race is won and who rest in

1 Torchdance in which the Bride and Bridegroom dance with
every member of the Royal Family in turn.

169

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 peace and who will be missing to the end of our days! "What a
happiness that Bertie and Arthur were here! and how glad I am
that Leopold of Belgium and Marie, Uncle Ernest and Philippe
Coburg were there. . . .

I have thought more of you than ever in my life and more than
of anyone else ! Mothers do not lose their daughters if all love
their mothers as much as I do you.

Three days later (February 22) the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

I am really half dead with fatigue and feel most wretched, but
am beyond measure distressed at not having written to you every
day, as I ought to have done, but which was perfectly impossible!

The first few days were terrible, when I saw Charlotte come in
with Bernhard, and no longer stand by me, but take her place by
the side of all the married Princesses and leave again with him —
without hardly being able to say Good-night to me! Then going
home from parties without her, and not knowing what she is
about ... is a dreadful thing to get accustomed to, but now that
I see her so happy and merry and gay, and looking blooming and
enjoying herself, that feeling is beginning to wear off with me.
I think it is inhuman to give all these fetes for the poor young
people — and the exhausted and agitated Mamas. But, however, this
evening is the last, thank God. Charlotte has been looking very
pretty in all her new things, and Bernhard seems so happy. The
Duke of Meiningen has quite softened and has become very
amiable, and delighted with Charlotte who is quite taken with his
goodness, while Bernhard's kind heart has melted towards his Papa
— which I am very glad of! Charlotte, though looking very well
and looking blooming, has fainted three times from the heat of
the rooms, to which she has never been accustomed. Tomorrow
our dear young people move off to Potsdam and into their sweet
little house — in which I trust they will be very happy! It seems
so funny to me when people talk of my Frau Tocher. To think
of my becoming so venerable!

The Emperor and Empress are looking particularly well and
are most kind and sympathising! All the guests are in the high-
est good humour, and I never saw an assembly of Princes and
Princesses and relations go off so well and harmoniously. The
public too are in the best of humour and most civil to Bertie
170

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

and to Leopold and Marie i Bertie and Arthur have the greatest 1878
" success " and are thought so charming and amiable by every-
one. Your not being here is universally regretted! I made Count
SeckendorfT write about the wedding and told him also to say that
Bertie's visit to Prince Bismarck, who is unable to go out or attend
the fetes, has given great pleasure here.

The genial atmosphere created by these two marriages
led to a further marriage, for the sister of one of the
brides. Princess Louise Margaret, the third daughter of
Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, now became engaged
to the Duke of Connaught. But before the marriage could
take place the whole court was plunged into mourning
by a series of tragic happenings at Darmstadt, where the
family of Princess Alice, the Crown Princess's favourite
sister, were stricken with diphtheria. On November i69
1878, the youngest child died from the disease that
during the previous fortnight had prostrated nearly every
member of the grand-ducal family. The mother, Princess
Alice, had the dreadful task of breaking this sad piece of
news to her only surviving son, and his distress was such
that the mother, disregarding all the physicians' injunc-
tions not to embrace her children, clasped him in her
arms, and thus received the kiss of death. In spite of all
medical efforts. Princess Alice died on December 14, 1878,
the same day on which the Prince Consort had died
seventeen years earlier. Between Princess Alice and the
Crown Princess there had always been sympathy and
devotion, which increased in later years owing to the fact
that both of them, having married German princes, were
resident in Germany. The blow was most distressing for
the Crown Princess, who wrote to Queen Victoria on
December 15, 1878 :

. . . I am in an agony of mind I cannot describe — my thoughts
fly backwards and forwards from you to poor unhappy Louis in

171

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1878 his loneliness and bereavement, then to those poor darling children
whose fates are more deeply affected than any by the perfect
destruction that has come over their happy home!

Sweet darling Alice — is she really gone ? So good, and dear
— so much admired. I cannot realise it, it is too awful, too cruel,
too terrible. — One can only hold fast to the belief that resignation
and gratitude are the never dying principles with which we must
accept what life brings, the blessings and the trials, the grief and
the happiness, the sunshine and the darkness which are inseparable.
... Oh that God would give wings to our souls to soar into
the regions of calmness and peace above, where the grace of
charity shines and the agonising details of ruin and destruction
disappear from our frail eyes. — Dead, dear darling! Blessed peace
is hers and all suffering is over : but you, dear Mama, I know
and feel what you are going through and I suffer for you from
the inmost depths of my heart. — I feel as if sorrow had made
me quite old in two days. Our darling! I can hardly bear to
write her dear name : she was my particular sister, the nearest in
age, the only one living in the same country with me! We had
so many interests in common and all our children were so near
of an age! A peculiar tenderness for her was always in my heart,
which perhaps she herself did not know or feel, and which no
little difference or misunderstanding (of which, thank God, there
were but few) ever lessened. We had been through so much
together, had been through the same trials, till those came that
lately overwhelmed her! I had always thought her fate fraught
with many a difficulty, in spite of her dear and sweet husband,
and of her charming home. These last years have been par-
ticularly trying for all who belong to Germany, and both she
and I felt greatly, each in a different way. How anxious I have felt
about her dear health I cannot tell you. It often tormented me to
see her so frail, so white, and her nerves so unstrung, though it
only added additional charm and grace to her dear person and
seemed to envelop her with something sad and touching that
always drew me to her all the more, and made me feel a wish to
help her and take care of her, poor dear! . . . Her last letter to
me, a little pencil note, which, alas, I did not keep, was a cry of
anguish for her sweet little flower, so rudely torn from its stem.
I never heard from her again. . . .

But now those unfortunate children! I have no words to
172

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

describe what I feel for them. A life without a mother's love is no 1879
life. . . . How can a man, even the kindest and best as dear Louis
is, know all that is required for the bringing up of girls ? But
you, dear Mama, will always take an interest in them and give
them your support and advice — and all that is in my power I
shall do for them! . . .

Three months later, on March 13, 1879, ^e Duke of
Connaught, the Crown Princess's second brother, was
married to Princess Louise Margaret, but even this happy
event had barely occurred when a further tragedy happened
in the Crown Princess's own family. Of all her children,
the one whose health gave her the most anxiety, and who
in turn perhaps received the greatest amount of maternal
love, was her fourth son, the little Prince Waldemar. In
spite of all her devotion, the little ten-year-old Prince
sickened and died in the closing days of March. It was
on the morning of March 27 that Queen Victoria, then
in Paris on her way to Lake Maggiore, received a telegram
from her daughter which ran : " Have just taken a last
look at the beloved child. He expired at half-past three
this morning from paralysis of the heart. Your broken-
hearted daughter, Victoria."

The blow was a severe one, but good news followed
ill, for two months later there came the glad tidings that
the Crown Princess's eldest daughter, Charlotte, had been
safely delivered of a baby girL Thus, at the age of thirty-
nine, the Crown Princess was a grandmother — an event
which closely approximated to Queen Victoria's own
history, for she had become a grandmother at the age of
thirty-eight

To all her surviving children the Crown Princess
displayed to the full that tender maternal consideration
which was one of her most marked characteristics, but

173

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1879 with regard to her attitude towards her eldest son, Prince
William, many bitter, ill-informed and even malicious
attacks have been made upon her. One recent biographer,
for instance,1 speaks of " the cold-heartedness of a des-
potic mother ", who " could not forgive the imperfection
of her eldest child " and " cherished in her heart a secret
grudge against her misshapen son ". Such words as those
have no foundation in fact and would seem attributable to
a presumption derived from the divergencies which mani-
fested themselves in later years. It is perhaps well to recall
an earlier letter of the Crown Princess's of January 28,
1871,2 in which she states, " I am happy to say that be-
tween him and me there is a bond of love and confidence
that I feel nothing can destroy ". In the years that fol-
lowed none was more eager to fight battles on her son's
behalf than the Princess, and one such incident may be
mentioned. On January 27, 1877, Prince William came
of age on his eighteenth birthday. Queen Victoria, his
grandmother, offered the young Prince the Grand Com-
mandership of the Bath. Prince William, however, held
that he was worthy of a higher distinction, and his mother
promptly wrote to Queen Victoria pointing out that the
Emperors of Russia and of Austria, and the King of Italy
had already sent the Prince the highest orders at their
disposal, and that the German Emperor himself had in
earlier years bestowed not only on the Prince of Wales,
but also on his brothers Alfred and Arthur, the highest
order in his power to give — the decoration of the Black
Eagle. The Order of the Garter, she urged, was the only
one that would suffice. " Willy ", she added, " would be
satisfied with the Bath, but the nation would not." Queen

1 Emil Ludwig, in his Kaiser Wilhelm IL p. 6.

2 Quoted on pp. 119-120, supra.
174

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

Victoria yielded to the Crown Princess's pleading on her 1879
son's behalf, and on his eighteenth birthday the future
Emperor William II. received the Order of the Garter.

Most particularly was the Crown Princess anxious
that her eldest son should receive the education and fall
under the influences which would fit him to lead his
country forward in the paths of peace and progress as a
liberal broad-minded monarch. When the young Prince
was but a schoolboy she had been eager to break through
the stiff traditional educational regime of the Prussian
court and, after much debate, had won her point, with
the result that her two eldest sons were sent from their
military school at Wilhelmshohe to the Lyceum at Cassel,
where they were treated as civilians. The intoxicating
events of three brilliant wars exercised, however, an in-
fluence which so liberal a curriculum was ineffectual to
counteract, and there developed early in Prince William
indications of a wish for independence that marked the
beginning of the differences of opinion between mother
and son. Whilst the Prince was in his teens he naturally
had to defer to the opinions of his parents, but when,
in 1880, at twenty-one years of age, he returned to his 1880
parental home from the Potsdam garrison where he had
discharged the duties of a first lieutenant in the regiment
of guards, it became evident that the military clique which
surrounded him had exercised influences which caused
grave apprehensions in the minds of his parents. In his
character there was indeed much mingling of good and
ill. From his mother he had inherited an intellectual
quickness and ability which for a century had been rare
among the Hohenzollerns, but with it was combined a
sensibility which made him particularly susceptible to
flattery and resentful of anything that tended to detract

175

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 from his own importance. As a result, mother and son
were now frequently estranged. The story is by no means
an unusual one : in fact it happens every day where
mother and son, both having similar personalities, hold
diametrically opposed views on life. Up to the time that
Prince William left home, all the Princess's letters show
that she was devoted to him and thought of nothing but
his happiness and his future success. Possibly the mistake
she made was to try and make him as like his father as
possible, and to this mould the future Emperor, conscious
of powers in other directions, could not be forced or
persuaded to conform. In his outlook on the world he
saw before him two obstacles to complete power. The
first was his octogenarian grandfather, the Emperor
William L, who, however, could not be expected to live
much longer; the second was his father, the Crown
Prince, now fifty years of age, whom he regarded as a
powerless heir-apparent with little control over his time
or finances, and checked continually by the Emperor
and the powerful Bismarck. To the young Prince, the
liberal opinions of his father were anathema, and the
evident English sympathies of his mother he deemed un-
patriotic. Both parents, although they saw with dismay
these new tendencies, regarded them with a parental love
that overlooked their worst manifestations, and in all the
letters of the Crown Princess to Queen Victoria at this
period it is noteworthy that he is mentioned proudly,
fondly and indulgently.1

Early in 1880 Prince William became secretly engaged

1 To say as Ludwig says (Kaiser Wtthelm IL p. 13), " When
his father's long life exacerbated him (the Crown Prince) beyond
endurance, he revenged himself on his son ", is a statement that
lacks foundation.
176

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

to Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein- 1880
Sonderburg-Augustenburg, daughter of that Duke Fred-
erick who sixteen years previously had laid claim to the
Duchy of Holstein, and niece of Prince Christian who
had married the Crown Princess's sister Helena.

Four days after the secret engagement, the Crown
Princess, who had a fear that the betrothal might not
meet with the approval of the Berlin court party, owing
to the bride not being one of the inner circle, wrote to
Queen Victoria (February 18) :

Willy has written most touching letters (in his own funny
style) about his great happiness. He engaged himself to dear
Victoria on the i4th, and had to leave again on the next day so as
not to attract attention, as it is all yet to be kept a secret. "We
received the letters yesterday and the news caused us great emotion
as you can imagine, but we also feel very thankful and much re-
lieved. You will perhaps see our dear future daughter-in-law before
we see her ourselves, as there is a chance of her going to England
and we should hardly see her before June.

Fritz wishes me to say that he recommends her to your kind-
ness. As your dear sister's grand-daughter and your grandson's
bride, we feel sure you will have a little place in your heart for her.

What a very horrid thing has happened at St. Petersburg! 1
It makes one's blood run cold, to think of what might have been,
and of the danger that may still surround the unfortunate Emperor.
How can human beings be so cruel! — and yet I am afraid the deeds
committed by the authorities, police, etc., on Russian subjects have
been no less cruel, and Siberia with all its horrors, the awful treat-
ment of the Poles, are terrible things which cry for vengeance.
But really to have the last Act of the Prophets in one's dining
room in good earnest is too dreadful. Guy Fawkes and Gun-
powder Treason one had thought were things of the past. Luckily
these horrid attempts hardly ever succeed, but it is all a chance ;

1 On February 17 there was an attempt to assassinate the Tsar.
At seven o'clock in the evening a mine exploded under the dining-
room as the Imperial family were descending the stairs to go to
dinner.

N I77

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 they might fail nine times and succeed on the tenth. The poor
delicate Empress, what a shock to her nerves! And poor Maria,
what a fright for her and for them all This Emperor is such a
kind and humane man that one feels doubly for him. This must
make a dreadful sensation everywhere.

To Queen Victoria's sympathetic answer, the Crown
Princess replied on February 21 :

"What, indeed, has not happened! Fritz makes me laugh with
his dismal forebodings, but he is convinced that some day or other
the Russian attempt will be copied at Berlin, and that these horrors
only excite imitation.

Of course, the science of destruction has been carried to a great
perfection by dynamite, nitro-glycerine, torpedo, Thomas watches,
etc. These are horrible engines of death which have been thought
charmingly useful in time of war, but when accessible to wicked
people, or even to excited maniacs, may deal most frightful damage
— still I am inclined to think that in spite of all this human life has
become more sacred than it was. Formerly Emperors of Russia
who were in anyone's way were throttled, poisoned or assassinated
in one fashion or another. " Le despotisme tempere par 1'assassina-
tion ", as Voltaire called the Russian form of Government, whereas
now assassins are no longer to be found among the officers of the
Imperial Guard and nobility, etc., but are confined to a band of
reckless, lawless men, who are for the moment dreadfully danger-
ous. How far spread this conspiracy is, is of course most difficult
to guess. "What connection with the " Internationale and Com-
munists " of other countries the Nihilists have, is not known, but
in Russia there is so little honesty, truth and justice, that it will
be very difficult to find out the real criminals, and any amount of
innocent people may be suspected and even punished. It is a
horrible thought. How horrified poor Marie must have been, and
Affie too. It is too shocking an event. . . .

About Willy I will only add that I do think it will be a very
unpopular match at Berlin, because the poor Holsteins are mat vu,
and there is a widespread, though very false, idea that they are not
ebenburtig. But I am sure this prejudice will wear off very quickly.

Early in March Prince William's fiancee arrived in
England on a visit to Queen Victoria. The Queen was at
178

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

once attracted to her prospective granddaughter-in-law 1880
(who became " Dona " to the family circle), and wrote
cordially of her to the Crown Princess. On March 26
the Crown Princess replied :

I am so delighted that you think Victoria so gentle and amiable
and sweet. She always struck me as such. I am sure she must
win all hearts. Her smile and her manners and expression must
disarm even the bristly, thorny people of Berlin with their sharp
tongues, their cutting sarcasms about everybody and everything.
The announcement has been much better taken than I had dared
to hope. There are of course many who are dissatisfied, but they
are in society and court circles ; in the public at large the news has
been received with pleasure, as is proved to me by the many
letters I receive. If I have been remiss in writing lately, it is because
I have so much to do in the way of writing an account of the
Verlobung.

My wishes are exactly the same as yours about Willy. I much
wish he should see a little of the world before marrying, though
all the time he was here it was the same as in Belgium and in
Holland and in London — he does not care to look at anything, took
no interest whatever in works of art, did not in the least admire
beautiful scenery and would not look at a Guide Book, or any
other book which would give him information about the places
to be seen. In this way you will admit that travelling is not of
much use, it is decidedly not his turn.

I also much wish that the marriage should take place in the
course of next year. I think it is a great blessing that Victoria is
22, and not 17, for in a place so difficult to get on in that is a great
advantage.

On the following day she wrote :

Congratulations on William's engagement come to me now on
all sides — it is often a sore trial to speak of joy, happiness and
festivities and receive congratulations, when one has an aching
void at heart. But such is life: while some are looking eagerly
forward, others feel that they must ever be casting longing looks
backwards to the time that was, and there is a melancholy jealous
feeling of consolation in the feeling that we remember, when all

179

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 others forget, the beloved ones that once brightened our home
with their dear presence. But I am very, very grateful for Willie's
happiness and sure dear Victoria will be a blessing to everyone
because she is so gentle and good.

Nor did the elation show any signs of diminution
during succeeding months.

Willy [wrote the Crown Princess on May 24] looks so happy
and I must say I think people have come round wonderfully.
Everyone seems disposed to like Dona, and what feeling there
was against the marriage has almost disappeared. I am very, very
thankful for this, for their dear sakes, and for the future.

The Crown Princess was now to learn of a love-story
which, to one of her upbringing and rigid sense of right
and wrong, must have appeared particularly lacking in
the pleasing features usually associated with a wedding.
Into her world of decorum, where the diversities of for-
tune and happiness had shown themselves in familiar
guise, a tragedy of passion and tears obtruded itself.

On June 3, 1880, the Princess was disturbed to learn
of the death of the Empress Marie of Russia, mother of
the Duchess of Edinburgh (the Crown Princess's sister-
in-law), and hastened to express her sympathy with the
bereaved Emperor Alexander II. and his daughter. With-
in a few months, however, she was scandalised to learn
that the Emperor had married again within six weeks
of his wife's death. The circumstances certainly were
unusual, and there were many who looked with tolerant
eye upon the Emperor's hasty remarriage. Although
ostensibly the Emperor's first marriage had been a
happy one, he had some years previously fallen madly
in love with one of the most beautiful women in Russia,
the Countess Dolgoroukova, the daughter of a wealthy
nobleman. Her parents, realising the turn events had
180

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

taken, sent their daughter away to Naples for two years, 1880
but the separation only served to strengthen the love
affair, and when the Emperor went to Paris on a visit,
the Countess fled from Naples to join him and returned
with him to St. Petersburg. In order to throw a cloak
over this illicit love affair, she was appointed Lady-
in-waiting to the Empress, and lived in the Winter
Palace in apartments to which a secret entrance had been
added.

During the twelve years that she lived in the Palace,
four children were born to her, and her position, difficult
as it was, was to some extent made possible by her great
beauty, her charm and her unfailing tact. When the
Empress died, it was generally supposed that the Emperor
would marry her, and although six weeks was certainly
a shorter period of mourning than either court or nation
expected, yet society at St. Petersburg made allowance
for this lack of convention. The marriage being mor-
ganatic, the Emperor now bestowed upon his bride the
title of Her Serene Highness Princess Yourievsky.

To the Crown Princess this story of passion and
intrigue, culminating in tragedy, appeared as a horrifying
irruption into the placid stream of her well-ordered life.
It was as if a reader of Schiller were to be unexpectedly
confronted with a telling page from one of Dostoievsky's
works. With an effort she adjusted herself to the new
situation, and on hearing of the Emperor's marriage wrote
to Queen Victoria on November 12, 1880 :

Fritz wishes me to tell you that on Monday he had a letter from
General Schweinitz enclosing one from St. Petersburg from our
Military Attache*, General Werder (the intimate friend of the
Emperor Alexander) saying : The Emperor was married to Prin-
cess Dolgoroukova on the 26th July in presence of General
Adlerbergand General Rilesef. He has given the name of Yourievsky

181

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 to his wife and children. It is not to be made known until the
2nd or 3rd December. The Emperor Alexander has desired a
letter to be written to my father-in-law informing him of the fact.
The Emperor (my father-in-law) wrote this to Fritz two days ago.
We knew from another source that after the marriage ceremony
the Emperor sent for Minny and the Cesarewitsch and presented
his wife to them and asked them to be kind to her. The unbecoming
haste with which the Emperor had the marriage rite performed
while the mourning for the poor Empress was yet so fresh, I
think can be accounted for and to a certain extent be justified by
his desire to do his duty as a man of honour by a lady and his
children whom he had placed in so painful a position. He feels
his health breaking and his life very uncertain in the condition
Russia now is in, and most likely wishes to legalise the ties he has
formed before a sudden death might prevent him from making
this reparation. What one must feel bitterly is the want of respect
to the poor Empress's memory, so devoted and virtuous a wife
and loving a mother. General Schwemitz says that anything is
better, however, than the former state of things, which was a
crying scandal. The poor Empress's feelings were not considered
while she lived, therefore what can be put straight in such lament-
able Perhdltnisse should be done without delay, and I am sure
you will agree with me that it is better so. Much as the children
feel their father's marrying again, yet it must be preferable for them
to feeling ashamed of the life he was leading.

I am more shocked than I can say at the whole business, it
reminds one of Louis XIV. and XV., and I feel very sorry for
the Emperor, as I am sure he is much too kindhearted a man not
to feel into what a fix he has got himself. On the other hand, in
Russia morality stands so low, and people are so lax and so in-
different that they do not care what happens. Please do not say
you have heard all this from me. No doubt the Emperor Alexander
will have sent you word in some way — perhaps through Alfred ?

In the same autumn Prince William spent a month in
England as the guest of Prince Christian, his bride's
uncle, at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor, and on his return
to Berlin at the end of November preparations were made
for his approaching wedding. The Crown Princess,
182

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

while welcoming her eldest son's marriage, could not but 1881
feel a pang at the coming separation from her son, and
wrote to her mother on January i, 1881 :

It is the last time we have Willy unmarried, in the same house,
in his old rooms with us. He thinks me absurdly sentimental to
observe this and says it is all the same to him in what place, or
house, or room he lives. I hate saying the words <c last time " to
anything, as much as I do the words " Good Bye ". Being soft-
hearted is very inconvenient it is true, but we cannot help it ; those
who are not, feel much more comfortable.

The letter seems to emphasise the difference in tem-
perament between mother and son — a difference that was
to be so acutely accentuated during the next few years.
It was during the early 'eighties that Prince William
seemed to become more and more imbued with the idea
that his mother was pro-English and worked against
German interests.

The wedding festivities took place on February 27,
1881, and were the occasion for the promotion to the
peerage as Lord Ampthill of Odo Russell, the intimate
friend of both the Crown Princess and the Prince of
Wales. On the day of the wedding the Crown Princess
wrote to her mother :

All has gone off very well till now. The Eitjfug-was really fine.
Dear Dona looked charming and everyone was taken wi£h her
sweetness and grace. Her face wore a look of innocent happiness,
which did one good to see. Her toilette was very becoming — a
light blue and gold brocade, with pink and white China asters,
and her pearls and your beautiful pendant round her neck.

The weather was fine and everyone in a good humour. The
crowd cheered and seemed pleased, and the decorations were really
very pretty indeed.

I was quite exhausted yesterday evening, or I would have
written directly. I had a diadem on, which pressed my head a
great deal, and did not take it off for six hours and a half. The

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 88 1 reception in the Schloss also went off very well, and even Prince
Bismarck appeared.

Today will be very trying and I wish it were over.

My parents-in-law are wonderful and never tired, standing,
heat, toilettes, talking, nothing seems to knock them up.

I thought so much of you> dearest Mama, and of the days when
I arrived here. It is made far easier to Victoria than it was to me,
and I hope she will never suffer from Heimweh as I do to this day.

Scarcely a fortnight after the echoes of the wedding
bells had died away there came the tragic news that the
Emperor Alexander IL of Russia had been assassinated
by a bomb on his way from a military review at St.
Petersburg. The first bomb which was thrown exploded
in the rear of the carriage. The Emperor at once alighted,
when a second bomb was thrown which inflicted fright-
ful injuries. He died two hours later. One of the dramatic
incidents connected with his death was that only a few
days before he had given instructions for a will to be pre-
pared in favour of his morganatic wife, Princess Youriev-
sky. The will was brought to him to sign on the same
day as an important ukase granting various reforms, the
signing of which was a lengthy matter. He therefore post-
poned signing until his return from the military review,
but from that function he never returned. The news of
the Emperor's death was a terrible shock for the Crown
Princess, who wrote to her mother on March 14 :

One is so horror-struck, that one really does not know what
to say! Poor dear Emperor Alexander! To die a shocking death
— it is too awful 1 For with his faults and failings he was so amiable
and charming and lovable, so kind-hearted and well-meaning. To
be destroyed in so horrible a manner ; it makes one shudder and
tremble, and fills one with pity, grief and sorrow! Thank God
the dreadful telegram said " II n'a pas repris connaissance ", so
that one may hope the fearful injuries had deprived him of all
pain and consciousness, which is merciful. Poor darling Marie!!
184

THE CROWN PRINCESS AND HER FAMILY

How will she stand so terrible a shock? To lose both parents 1881
within a year and her Father, whom she doted on, in such a manner ! !
I suppose I shall see her this evening at the railway s:ation!

All the circumstances are so terrible I This new marriage had
cast such a chill over all relations defamille; and had done him
much harm with the public I They say he was so very happy!!
I pity the poor woman now for she loved him very much, —
though she had no business to be where she was yet. I am sure
the poor creature must be in an agony!

My father-in-law shed many tears, and is most deeply grieved,
but I am happy to say it did not give him a sudden shock, which
it might have done had he been younger! At his age impressions
are not so violent. He was so fond of his nephew! I shall never for-
get how kind and nice the poor Emperor Alexander always was
to me. As for the Nihilists not being destroyed — I am quite sure
of that, and could not share dear Affie's sanguine views on the
subject!

Too many cruelties, too much severity had been shown by the
Government for a long period of years — for a spirit of revenge not
to spring up, which is then too difficult to quell. The saddest part
is that it should be wreaked out on so well intentioned and kind
hearted a Sovereign — who was not the tyrant the others had been
before him, though he had a little of it in him at times, as mostly
all Czars must have! The state of all grades of Society there is
too bad and too sad! How will they get into a civilised State of
Liberty and order where all that cruel oppression, that sending to
Siberia and slowly killing families wholesale, — will cease, and the
life and freedom of the subject be protected by wise and humane
laws conscientiously carried out! Despotism is a demon — that has
all savage crimes and cruelties in his train, and must sooner or later
lead to such terrible things, which then usually fall on the innocent.
Vor dem Sklaven wenn er die Kette bricht,
Vor dem freien Menschen zitt're nicht.1

I am so sorry for Sacha2 and Minny,3 to take up a murdered

1 Before the Slave when he breaks his chain,
Before the Freeman tremble not.

2 The Czarewitch.

3 Married daughter of the King of Denmark, sister of Queen
Alexandra.

185

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 88 1 father's Crown is too dreadful. I know what we felt when we
were so nearly in the same position!

I have not closed my eyes all night, I was so shaken with horror!
Thank God the poor Empress was spared this. The poor Emperor
always expected such a death, and for years has felt like a hunted
hare — safe nowhere. What a life at such a price! I must own I
always dreaded it — and thought that if those attacks on his life
continued, one would be successful.

Fancy the confusion at Petersburg, the terror, and all the
horrible reprisals they will resort to ! As dangerous in my eyes as
the rest of the state of things 1 Bloodshed and cruelty all round —
it makes one shudder and creep! I must end, dearest Mama, in a
hurry. We go to the Greek Mass at half past 1 1 — to the Russian
Embassy, and whether Fritz has to go off to St. Petersburg or
not, I don't know.

Already much of the beauty of life had vanished for
the Empress. In Germany she had not won that love
and veneration which her mother now commanded in
England ; always there were those who were willing to
place the worst constructions upon her most innocent
and well-meant acts. She was misunderstood — but one
person at least understood her — her husband — whom she
loved and adored with all her heart. Never once had
the idyllic promise of those early days of marriage been
broken — never once had the finger of disillusion de-
stroyed the gossamer beauty of a perfect marriage. How-
ever trying and difficult affairs might be, two things as yet
she felt she could count on with unerring trust — the love
and affection of her children and the unchanging, un-
ceasing loyalty and love of the husband she adored.

186

CHAPTER VII

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

THE decade following the Treaty of Berlin had shown 1879
a gradual increase of German influence in world affairs,
but at the same time a somewhat remarkable decline of
British prestige. In these years Bismarck definitely made
new departures in domestic and foreign policy. In home
affairs he continued negotiations with the Vatican over
the anti-clerical May Laws, whose author. Dr. Falk,
resigned office ; and he abandoned free trade and began
to build up a constructive system of protection. In
foreign policy he risked strained relations with Russia by
signing a defensive alliance with Austria, and even made
tentative overtures towards a rapprochement with Great
Britain although no definite offer of an alliance was
made till ten years later. On November 3, 1879, Queen
Victoria wrote to the Crown Princess :

What Fritz said about the alliance or good understanding be-
tween Germany and Austria is not new to me. It came in a secret
form two months ago to my ears ; but only now have I heard it
from Lord Salisbury who heard it from Count Karolyi. I am
naturally pleased at the prospect which a cordial defensive alliance
between Germany and Austria offers in the interest of peace. The
value of such an alliance, however, would be greatly diminished
in my eyes if it gave umbrage to France. Fritz seems to think
our influence might be used in deterring France from oppos-
ing herself to such a league, but how far or under what conditions
our influence can be exerted beneficially is a question involving
a great many considerations, and I know not yet what Lord Beacons-

187

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 field's and Lord Salisbury's views are. But I am certain that any
league against France would never be tolerated by this country.

Fritz's name shall not be mentioned, and I am very grateful for
his giving me the important information he has done. If he hears
more I trust he will let me know. And I may soon be able to say
more.

In the years that followed the Eastern question came
up again and again. Turkey, the sick man of Europe,
seemed to recover after the drastic surgical operation
which the Congress had decided would be the solution
of his troubles, and two years later Ottoman sovereignty
and Ottoman misrule were again defying the doctors.
In the meantime the great opponent of Lord Beacons-
field's Eastern policy, Mr. Gladstone, had his turn at the
Eastern problem. His Cabinet, with Lord Granville as
Foreign Secretary, entered office in April 1880, just in
time, as Lord Dufferin said, to prevent England from
coming into conflict with all the world.

Bismarck was determined that the terms of the Treaty
of Berlin should be adhered to, and pointedly said
(December 5, 1879) that " the sound bones of a single
Pomeranian grenadier " would not be sacrificed to solve
a Balkan wrangle. Yet neither Montenegro nor Greece
would be satisfied until those rectifications of frontiers
promised in the Treaty had been carried out by Turkey,
and Turkey, recovering, felt sufficiently well not to
respect her obligations.

"With a view to the adjustment of these claims, a Euro-
pean Conference met in London in June 1880. Turkey,
however, objected to the decision of the Conference
that she should cede the port and littoral of Dulcigno
to Montenegro. On July 10 the Crown Princess wrote:

The present moment seems to me a most critical one, and one
that demands prompt and energetic action on the part of England.
188

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

The Turks will not give way to European advice alone; the 1880
Russians encourage their resistance and also further the demands
of all those interested in taking a portion of Turkey for themselves,
knowing that they can in that way obtain their Constantinople.
Until they have it they will never rest, nor will the " Eastern
question " ever be terminated ; they will work at bringing it up
again under every possible shape and form with their own peculiar
cleverness and astuteness. They know full well, that no other
European Power has a very great interest to prevent their having
Constantinople and they reckon on England's inability to prevent
it. England must and can prevent it, but only now, in a few weeks
it would be too late. Torpedoes will be placed to prevent English
ships coming up, and the partition of Turkey will be effected with
much cruelty and bloodshed.

Why can our ships not come into the Dardanelles? Why
cannot England who has been obliged to do so much for the
Turks, and has spent money and life enough to prevent Russia
from taking possession of Constantinople, not prevent it to the end !
Mr. Gladstone's policy has, of course, hastened on the crisis which
would have taken years to come to its present state. The Turks
have had every chance of reforming and mending their ways —
they are incapable of doing so, and even their best friends must
allow that they can remain in Europe no more — Why not use
douce violence, Le., go in and oblige them as friends to carry out
what they cannot do themselves 1 Why not send Sir Lintorn
Simmons to make a military convention with them and some ships
to the Golden Horn! Why not leave Mr. Goschen x there and send
more people to take in hand Turkish finance and administration ?
It is the only way to prevent cruel bloodshed and war! The other
European Powers would, I am certain, not oppose such a plan! If
later the Sultan would take up his abode at Smyrna and even
move down to Asia Minor, and Constantinople remain under
English administration till an independent State, guaranteed by the
European Powers, and an independent Sovereign at its head can
be established, so much the better! The danger of a State which
would be Russia's vassal, to be absorbed by her at a convenient
moment, would be averted!

1 Mr. J. G. Goschen, M.P. (afterwards Viscount Goschen) who
was temporary Ambassador at Constantinople.

189

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1880 Roumania, Bosnia and Bulgaria, now so afraid of Russia, would
have someone to lean on, and in that part of the world it would
be English influence and not Russian influence that would reign
and govern ! What a benefit to the world in general that would be !

I trust there may be energy and decision enough at the Foreign
Office to take the right step and not to wait or hesitate ; in a fort-
night it would be too late. The Russians will be into Con-
stantinople like a shot on the first opportunity! Of this we have
plenty of evidence.

They think the English Liberal Government are determined to
do nothing, and this makes them very confident of success. I am
not Russophobe and think it very unjust, but I know what the
Russians think and intend! I am Turcophile, Le., I wish to see
the Turkish population, instead of being massacred and obliged to
fight again, enjoying a Government such as the one under which
our Mussulman population in India prosper and not the cruel
and barbarous rule of Russian officials inspired by the fanaticism
of the Greek religion 1 1 As we cannot keep up the Sultan's rule,
surely we ought by every means in our power to prevent him and
his people being swallowed up by the very Power we resisted in
1854.

You know I have always put forward this view and hold itl!
If Alfred be not the proper Sovereign for an independent State
(which would develop out of a British occupation) there is Arthur
and Leopold, or the Duke of Genoa, or other Princes might be
found in Germany who could undertake such a task — Prince
Waldemar of Denmark 1! There are many Prussians who think it
would be very good to have the Russians at Constantinople.
Prince Bismarck does not exactly wish it, and would prefer English
influence to another, but of course to have the Russians busied
in the East makes him feel less threatened at home ; they are such
very unsafe neighbours and slippery friends, and Germany is so
uncomfortably placed between France and Russia, that one is
-alwaysjDn the " qui vive "*

I hope" you will not mind my having spoken out so plainly,
but my convictions tasiso very strong on the subject and time is
so very precious — not zriath&r^moment ^hould be lost, and a bold
** coup " made — The details of how^ I am 'sure there are clever
heads in the Cabinet enough to make out!

PS. — On this subject the interests of England, Europe and
190

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

the world at large seem to me quite identical — not so the interests 1881
of Russia, which are purely selfish and not humane, or civilizatory
or for the honour and glory of liberty and progress!

In the October of 1881 the general elections in
Germany resulted in a large Liberal majority, an event
which pleased the Crown Princess, who wrote to Queen
Victoria on November 5 :

... I am very glad the German elections have returned so
many liberals, and I hope it will show Prince Bismarck that
the Germans are not all delighted with his government, though
I do not think he cares a bit! I wonder why he does not say
straight out " As long as I live both the constitution and the crown
are suspended " ; because that is the exact state of the matter. No
doubt he is quite patriotic and sincere, and thinks it is for the good
of Germany! He thinks a great central power is necessary and
that one will must decide and the state be everything and do
everything like one vast set of machinery, say the " Inflexible ",
for instance, where the captain alone works everything by elec-
tricity and directs the ship ... so Prince Bismarck wishes with
the pressure of his little finger to direct the whole, and thinks
it doubly necessary for safety's sake in case of being attacked by
France or Russia.

I do not like this state of things, but most Prussians and
Conservatives do. ...

The Princess was not long left in doubt as to Bis-
marck's determination to be the sole controller of the
German ship of state, for three weeks later, on November
29, he bluntly declared that in spite of the liberal majority
he did not intend Germany to be ruled after the English
fashion, and on January 7, 1882, an Imperial rescript was 1882
issued against parliamentary government. Once again
Bismarck was supreme.

One result of these political changes in England and
Germany was a steadily increasing tension between the
two countries, which was not minimised by Bismarck's

191

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1882 insistence on the impossibility of any alliance with
England owing to her parliamentary control of foreign
policy. A general election bringing in a new ministry
might, he thought, overturn any foreign understanding
made by its predecessors, and his policy was accordingly
one of deep distrust of England, particularly during the
Gladstone regime. This distrust extended to those in
Germany who were known to be of English sympathies,
and even the Crown Princess found herself surrounded
by a network of espionage. It was about this period that
there was attached to the Crown Prince's suite by Bis-
marck a Count Radolin-Radolinsky, who had orders to
watch the activities of the Princess's Court Chamberlain,
Count Seckendorff. Not unnaturally Radolinsky's domi-
neering attitude gave considerable cause for trouble, for
while he appeared to support the Crown Princess's views
and opinions, his presence was a thorn in the flesh to the
more loyal members of her suite. It was in 1882 or 1883
that the Crown Princess's friend, Lady Ponsonby, wrote
to her husband, who was secretary to Queen Victoria :

I don't think the Queen realises what an extraordinary state of
things exists in Germany in the way of espionage and intrigue.
They, the Foreign Office, which means Bismarck, wanted to put a
man of their own about the Crown Princess so as more effectually
to control the Crown Prince when he became Emperor. Secken-
dorff refused to play the spy, and, although being opposed to the
Crown Princess in politics, would not lend himself to this intrigue.
They began by dismissing his brother, after twenty years" service,
from the Foreign Office without any reason being given. Then
they appointed Radolinsky (Court Marshal to the Crown Prince)
with orders to get rid of Seckendorff. Radolinsky furthered, or ap-
peared to further, the Crown Princess's views about Bulgaria, and
ingratiated himself into her good graces and then began the under-
mining of Seckendorff. I think Seckendorff is to blame for his
dictatorial manner, and she may have made him, as is the wont of

192

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

the family, too much " the indispensable one ", but I feel convinced 1884
on the whole that he is being got rid of under false pretences, for
Radolinsky's manner of defending the Crown Princess simply con-
sists of spreading these reports and in trying to detach her family
from her.

In the following years this rivalry between Radolinsky
and Seckendorff, inspired by Bismarck, was to reach pro-
portions that gravely perturbed the Crown Princess, but
for the moment the espionage and intrigue was hidden
from her eyes.

One of the most trusted friends of the Crown Prince
and Princess now died at Potsdam. The death of Lord
Ampthill (Odo Russell) was a sad blow for them both,
for even though the able Ambassador's successor was
Sir Edward Malet, whose staff included Colonel L. V.
Swaine as Military Attache, no one could quite replace
the gifted Lord Ampthill, who had been their friend for
over twenty years* On August 30, 1884, the Crown
Princess, who was then on holiday in England, wrote to
Queen Victoria, who was at Osborne.

I feel I have not half thanked you for the charming stay you
allowed us to have in this sweet, peaceful little cottage which I
love so much! It was indeed delightful in every way and I know
not how to express all my gratitude, also for letting my little
people stay here while I am away. I shall feel they are all so safe,
and well cared for.

The more I think of Berlin, and the poor dear Lord Odo's
successor, the more I fear that amongst the diplomatists the right
person does not seem to be at the present forthcoming. The next
few years are the most important; later, who could be better than
Morier, but just now I really only see TWO men, the one, Lord
Acton, and the other Lord Arthur Russell! Whether Lord Gran-
ville could do it, whether they would be willing, are questions of
course I know nothing about.

My opinion you must take at what it is worth, but it is the only

conclusion I can come to after my reflections and I sadly fear it

0 193

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1884 will be disagreeable to poor Lord Granville, who is already so much
worried and troubled. . . . (Lord Arthur has had some diplomatic
training and was the secretary of his uncle. Lord John.)

In that year the Crown Princess again met Mr. Glad-
stone, and to an inquiry from Lady Ponsonby as to what
she thought of the Liberal leader she replied (October 17,
1884) :

. . . You asked me what I thought of Mr. Gladstone when I
saw him at Balmoral ? I thought him, as I always do, a wonderful
man for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration, and
who interests me deeply, and whose society I think perfectly
charming! Such knowledge, such culture, such a memory, such
earnestness of purpose, and such simplicity. Alas! I fear not the
right man to solve the knotty questions which, as an Empire,
England has to deal with, but invaluable in stemming the tide of
democracy, because, as a true Liberal, he has the confidence of
so many thousands and is the only one who can form a bridge
between the old and the new. Whether he has the keen sight, the
eagle eye of the statesman, I do not know. I fear not. Whether
the measures he has adopted, Land Bill, etc., were right, I dare
not say. I do not feel sure. The conscientiousness, the high and
lofty aims he certainly has ; but at this present moment he seems
so absorbed by the wants of the lower classes and middle class,
and with the task of giving them all they can and may safely have,
that the other great problems that hurry on are scarcely treated
with the care and ability they require. The East, our Colonies, our
Army and our Navy must not be neglected. France and Germany
are allowed to be wanting in respect, and this never, never ought
to be. It is well not to be too thin-skinned, but we ought not to
allow others to trifle with usl

If there is a conference at Berlin to settle, as they say, what is
to become of Africa, ought England not to make the proposals
and to insist on what decisions are to be taken ? England is a
great deal too humble to foreign Powers I They only misunder-
stand her. We get no thanks for our modesty and moderation.
The tone of the German press towards England, with few excep-
tions, is execrable, but as it is as stupid as it is insolent one had
better pay no attention to it.
194

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

The Germans are always reproaching the English for having 1885
prejudices against Germany, and forget that they have many more
and much more deeply-seated ones about other countries, especially
England ! They imagine England is jealous of Germany's attempt-
ing to have colonies. I am almost certain that the whole agitation
about colonial enterprise would not have been cooked up so
much by the German government if it were not a useful handle
for the elections and for securing the measure of the foundation
of a line of German steam-packets which the Chancellor wants to
carry. The nation is really like a child, delighted with a new toy
or dainty morsel held out to it — a sugar plum — greedily trying
to snatch it and furious with anybody or anything that seems to
put difficulties in the wayl This colonial sugar plum may easily
turn into a bitter almond, and the beginning seems to me sad
enough if it cannot be obtained without an estrangement between
England 'and Germany.

In the following year, 1885, Mr. Gladstone's govern-
ment received a new lease of life, but it then became
dependent upon the Irish nationalist vote for its parlia-
mentary majority. In the Liberal ministry which was
formed in February 1886, Mr. Gladstone willingly ad- 1886
mitted Mr. John Morley as Chief Secretary for Ireland,
but it was with great reluctance that he included the
Radical leader, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, as President of
the Local Government Board. One striking omission was
that of Sir Charles Dilke. All these statesmen were well
known to the Crown Princess, but the appointment which
gave her the greatest pleasure was that of Lord Rosebery
to the Foreign Office, a promotion which also delighted
Bismarck and his son, Count Herbert Bismarck. On
February 5, 1886, the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria :

I am very glad indeed that Lord Rosebery is appointed to the
Foreign Office.

I saw Herbert Bismarck yesterday evening at a party and he

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1886 was quite delighted and said his father was immensely pleased,
and hoped and trusted Lord Rosebery would walk in Lord Salis-
bury's footsteps ; also that his father had great confidence in Lord
Rosebery's abilities, intentions and energy. This was quite sincere,
and it was not difficult to see that Prince Bismarck really desires
to be well with England and really approved Lord S.'s Eastern
policy.

Mr. Gladstone now made it clear that he intended to
go through with his policy of Home Rule for Ireland,
and in his first interview with Queen Victoria early in
February he outlined his scheme. To Queen Victoria's
letter giving this news, the Crown Princess replied
(February 5) :

So many thanks for your dear letter of the 3rd and for the
memorandum, ie. the notes you made of your first interview with
Mr. Gladstone, which interested us extremely. I think your con-
versation was very satisfactory. I, too, am afraid that he will fail
and that the scheme is impossible, but there is no doubt that he
is most thoroughly in earnest and that he knows the immense
responsibility he has taken upon himself and does not conceal
any of the difficulties from himself, I am glad Lord Harrington
spoke so plainly to him. It is strange Lord Spencer should have
changed his views so much since May. Mr. J. Morley I know,
and he always struck me as a clever, learned, cultivated man,
decidedly quiet and serious and without vanity. That Mr. Glad-
stone should not be blind about Mr. Chamberlain and Sir C. Dilke
is also a good thing.

In short from the paper you so kindly sent, and which I much
admire, the lookout seems a little better than I feared. " To
examine " the wishes of the Irish people is no doubt a sacred duty.
But the two millions that clamour and that are in a state of
organised revolt, and under the tyranny of Mr. Parnell and his
followers are not all Ireland! and I am sadly afraid that there is
no satisfying these, and if they were satisfied it would be mischief,
misery, rum and injustice to all the others ! The Irish-Americans,
the Fenians, the irreconcilable ** invincibles ", etc., are not to be
won over by mere legislation, distribution of land, etc. The Irish
196

FOREIGN AFFAIRS, 1878-1886

question seems to me to be composed of two elements. The one, 1886
that of evils that can be remedied and of reforms which are just
and in accordance with the times, and would work well and be
a benefit to the country. The other element is an evil which
only force can overcome. Lawlessness and violence is a form
of war and only can be met by taking up the quarrel, but the
strife is not one with all Ireland, or with the Irish people — it is
with that portion or faction who will not keep the peace and
who force war upon England with or without reason. The less
reason they have, the more justifiable is force in putting them
down. Therefore the Government can solve the problem by con-
scientiously sifting the question to the bottom and seeing where
still an evil remains which can be remedied by peaceful methods.
It will strengthen England's hands for the struggle if there is to
be one.

War with America was once prevented and dear Papa worked
harder than anyone to stop it, and war with the disaffected part of
the Irish population may be avoided by striking a blow at the
terrorism, which enthralls so many who are powerless to resist.
A more difficult problem was never put before a nation! It puts
to the test our constitutionalism, our national temper, common
sense and energy, our political understanding and our statesmen!
But no question was ever so bad that there was not some road out
of it, and I trust it will be found. Is Mr. Gladstone the genius to
find it or is he not? — there is the question. I do not dare give an
opinion on this as I really do not know! The will, the earnestness
of purpose, the readiness, the sacrifice, yes! but he has taken some
steps and expressed some views where one feels one cannot agree,
nor see the wisdom of them, and where one can only share Mr.
Goschen's, Lord Harrington's, the Dukes of Bedford's, Argyll's
and Westminster's objections.

You must indeed feel the keenest anxiety, but you have done
all you could, all that was fair and right and wise, and must now
trust that good will come out of it! I cannot say how much I
feel for you and share all your doubts and fears and anxieties, but
being sanguine by nature I am never without hopes and the com-
position of the Cabinet certainly offers many a comforting feature.
You will miss Lord Salisbury much, I am sure. I hope Lord
Rosebery will prove a good Foreign Secretary, and his nomination
is a thing to be thankful for. . . .

197

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1886 A fortnight later (February 19, 1886) the Crown
Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I wonder why a special commission of inquiry on Irish
affairs — composed of a junction of Liberals and Conservatives of
course with the exclusion of the Parnellites — could not be called
to examine thoroughly all that is so dark and complex still in the
question, and propose to the Government means of reform and
pacification — with the fixed and decided intention of never giving
way to Parnell, Fenians, Socialists, Anarchists, Americans and
priests and Home Rulers, etc., and of restoring law and order and
respect for authority.

One does not feel confidence in Mr. Gladstone being perfectly
certain as to what he may and will not do ; in so knotty a question
if one is already determined as to what cannot be done it clears
up the problem, and it is easier then to find what is and ought to
be done. If the advanced Radicals contemplate the possibility of
an alliance with anarchists, to carry measures of reform, all other
parties should combine against them.

I also admire many of Mr. Gladstone's great qualities very
much, but should be utterly unable to follow him blindly, as the
stable and steady elements seem so wanting in his composition,
and just at present these qualities are so indispensable if one is to
feel confidence in his policy. I own mine is very small.1

In the following July Mr. Gladstone, faced with over-
whelming parliamentary difficulties, resigned. Lord Salis-
bury for the second time took the helm of the vessel of
state — to steer a course vastly different from that of his
democratic predecessor.

1 Mary Ponsonby, p. 252.

198

CHAPTER VIII

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

MARRIAGES, especially love matches, are a constant source 1886
of trouble to parents. Difficulties may and do arise be-
cause of differences in temperament, family feuds, or even
financial settlements, and with a royal family not only
are these risks multiplied, but there is the added terror
of international politics and diplomatic considerations to
complicate matters. The Machiavellis of Europe see in
an apparently normal betrothal a golden opportunity of
grinding a political axe or of carrying out some coup that
may alter the whole trend of politics. Under such circum-
stances, princes or princesses who have become engaged
find themselves converted into pawns on the international
chess-board and made instruments of political intrigue.
It was such a series of events that converted the happy
engagement of Prince Alexander of Battenberg with
Princess Victoria, the daughter of the Crown Princess,
into a European complication which threatened at one
time to involve the resignation of Prince Bismarck, and
had the disastrous consequence of widening the breach
that had unfortunately appeared between the Crown
Princess and her eldest son.

It was in the May of 1886, when Prince William was
suffering from an inflammation of the ear, that for the
first time the Crown Princess complained to her mother
of his distant behaviour :

199

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1886 . . . Dr. Bergmann [she wrote on May 25] thinks Willy will
go on all right, and is quite content. Dr. Trautmann continues to
make out that it is most serious and that two or three days ago it
was even very dangerous, and both agree that great care must be
taken to get the ear thoroughly well. Bergmann does not think
the inflammation need ever return, and could find nothing amiss
with the drum ; he says there is no need for any operation what-
ever, that the inflammation had gone down and there was no more
matter or discharge, pressure on the brain or any other uncom-
fortable symptoms. Willy is allowed to be out and to walk in the
garden, but is ordered to keep very quiet. We met him in the
garden and I thought him looking all right. He did not con-
descend to remember that he had not seen me for two months, or
that I had been to England and to Homburg, or that his sisters
had the measles. He never asked after them or you, or any of my
relations in England, so that I felt hurt and disappointed as I had
been tormenting myself so much about him. He is a curious
creature I A little civility, kindness and empressement go a long
way, but I never get them from him. However, now he is not
well I will certainly take no notice of his strange want of thought-
fulness. Still, it is very painful to a soft-hearted Mama to feel so
plainly that her own child does not care whether he sees her or no,
whether she is well or ill, or away, etc. Dona is most devoted to
him and never leaves him for one minute ; they seem very happy
and contented together.

This letter emphasises the fact that in the years since
Prince "William's marriage there had been a cooling-off of
affection and even a growing antipathy between the son
and the mother. Prince William, whose political tend-
encies led him into paths unfrequented by his mother,
had now cut himself adrift from all parental authority
and was beginning to show an increasing disrespect
for his mother which hurt her as only a son can wound
a parent. Before long the seeds of an open quarrel were
only too manifest even to outsiders. The immediate
cause of the difference was the Crown Princess's desire
that her daughters should marry, as Prince William had
200

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

done, for love rather than for reasons of state, and when 1879
it became evident that she favoured Prince Alexander of
Battenberg's desire to marry her daughter Victoria, the
views of mother and son conflicted. Not only the Crown
Prince and Princess, but also Queen Victoria viewed
with approval the Prince's suit ; on the other hand, there
was an early undercurrent of opposition which both
Prince Bismarck and the Tsar of Russia encouraged.
The reason was not far to seek.

The Treaty of Berlin had created a new state, that of
Bulgaria, which, while still under the nominal suzerainty
of the Sultan, was regarded by Russia as being bound to
her by ties of race and religion. The choice of a first
ruler for the infant state awakened bitter animosities, and
it was the Tsar's nominee, Prince Alexander, who was
finally elected in April 1879. Prince Alexander, then a
handsome and attractive youth of twenty-two, was the
second son of the Prince Alexander of Hesse and inti-
mately known to the Crown Princess. His eldest brother,
Prince Louis of Battenberg, was a great friend of the
Prince of Wales, and married in 1884 Princess Victoria
of Hesse, the daughter of the Crown Princess's sister
Alice. Another brother, Prince Henry, also became re-
lated to the Crown Princess later, for, in 1886, he married
Princess Beatrice.

Immediately after his election to the Bulgarian throne
Prince Alexander paid a series of visits to the various
European courts. At Berlin he found Bismarck "very
kind ", and in London (June 1879) he found a firm friend
in Queen Victoria, who liked him and thought him
"sincere and honest". It was during this tour that
he made the acquaintanceship of the Crown Princess's
daughter Victoria, who was then seventeen years of age.

201

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1885 Prince Alexander, who was called in the family
" Sandro ", had no sooner taken up the actual burden of
sovereignty than he showed that he would be no catspaw
of Russia, but would rather encourage Bulgarian aspira-
tions towards complete independence. In the September
of 1883, now the virtual dictator of Bulgaria, he definitely
opposed Russian influence by dismissing Colonel Redi-
gher and other Russian officers. The Crown Princess
wrote immediately to Queen Victoria, urging that it was
most important that England should support and en-
courage Prince Alexander. Queen Victoria sent the letter
to Lord Dufferin (November 18, 1883), the British Am-
bassador at Constantinople, whose representations re-
sulted in peaceful relations being re-established between
Bulgaria and Russia.

1885 Two years later, in 1885, the projected marriage of
the Princess Victoria to Prince Alexander was vigorously
promoted by the Crown Princess, at first in secret. But
the moment the project came to the ears of Bismarck
(June or July 1885), who favoured the King of Portugal
as the Princess's husband, it was doomed.

As soon as I heard of it Pie told Busch three years later] I made
representations to the Emperor, verbally and in writing. He
allowed himself to be convinced by the reasons I adduced, and
refused to give his consent, although she said the Princess loved
him. Of course, he is a handsome man, with a fine presence ; but
I believe her nature is such that she would accept any other suitor,
providing he were manly. Moreover, that is entirely beside the
question. We must look at the political objections and dangers.
The old Queen is fond of matchmaking, like all old women, and
she may have selected Prince Alexander for her grand-daughter,
because he is a brother of her son-in-law, the husband of her
favourite daughter, Beatrice. But obviously her main objects are
political — a permanent estrangement between ourselves and Russia
— and if she were to come here for the Princess's birthday, there
202

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

would be the greatest danger that she would get her way. In family 1885
matters she is not accustomed to contradiction, and would immedi-
ately bring the parson with her in her travelling bag and the bride-
groom in her trunk and the marriage would come off at once.

Prince William took the side of Bismarck, and the
first open quarrel between the Empress and her son was
kindled by this flame.

It had even come [Ludwig relates] to an exchange of rings
between the girl and this Battenberg Prince, when Bismarck inter-
posed on the Tsar's behalf, and instantly found Prince William on
his side. A violent scene between mother and son ensued at the
beginning of 1885 ; it was thought desirable to remove him from
Potsdam.1

For the moment, the opposition of Bismarck and the
aged Emperor prevailed ; but the Crown Princess did
not lightly relinquish her project, and determined to
strengthen Prince Alexander's position in Bulgaria. In
November 1885 war broke out between Servia and Bul-
garia, but in the following month peace seemed probable,
and on December 5, 1885, the Crown Princess wrote to
Lady Ponsonby :

The Eastern question does look a little brighter, I am happy to
say. I am heart and soul with the Bulgarians, and hope for an inde-
pendent, united Bulgaria in the shape of a kingdom, and un-
shackled by Russians or Turks. The people deserve and the Prince
deserves it, and it would be a very good thing for Europe, as it
would prevent the Russians from continually meddling and in-
triguing in this Eastern question and would leave poor old Turkey
to die a natural and, I hope, a painless death, without fresh con-
vulsions, horrors and bloodshed. Russia would have to swallow
it, and Austria too. German public opinion would highly approve
of it in every way. I think England would have cause to rejoice
and France and Italy would not mind. These are my private
opinions. Of course, they cannot be proclaimed on the house-

1 Ludwig, Kaiser William IL p. 15.

203

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1885 tops, as the Government and Diplomacy here are obliged to study
Russian susceptibilities and not to oppose her in any way. . . -1

1886 Three months later peace was signed between Servia
and Bulgaria. Eastern Roumelia was now virtually
(though not nominally) joined to Bulgaria, and Prince
Alexander was appointed governor of the province for
five years. On March 4, 1886, the Crown Princess wrote
to Lady Ponsonby :

I am still very, very anxious about Bulgaria. But, thank God!
the Peace is now signed. Few people in the world have gone
through what Prince Alexander has had to struggle with in every
shape and form. My admiration for him increases every day. As a
patriot, a soldier, and a statesman, he has shown an energy, patience,
perseverance, modesty and moderation such as one has rarely seen
and which one can only find in the perfect gentleman. And he
owes it to himself alone, as he has hardly anyone about him with
whom he could share the responsibility. He deserves to be success-
ful and to be happy. May he be so! I tremble for his safety and
for the difficult time he will still have to fight through before his
enemies learn to let him alone and do him justice, and before his
country and his own position are safe from the plots and intrigues
which are still so rife against them. He and his cause indeed de-
serve sympathy and support from all well-minded people, and it
is only the wilfully prejudiced who can find anything to blame
in his conduct, or those under the direct influence of the lies and
calumnies of his bitter enemies.2

In the summer of 1886, however, the Tsar's long
account with the youthful ruler, who had dared to defy
Russian aims, was ready for presentation, and negotiations
began between Russia and Turkey for the cession of part
of Prince Alexander's territory to Russia. The Crown
Princess was full of sympathy for the young ruler, and

1 Mary Ponsonby, p. 250, December 5, 1885.

2 Ibid. p. 256, March 4, 1886.
204

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

her attitude is plainly indicated by the following letter 1886
to her mother dated May 15, 1886 :

We have heard from the F.O. at Berlin today that the news
from Bulgaria is bad and that the Russians are agitating most
violently and that behind Sandro's back they are treating with the
Turks for the cession of the harbour of Burgas to Russia. Perhaps
it might be advisable to warn him of this danger. It is a thing
which his own country would never forgive, if he allowed the best
harbour to be ceded to the Russians. This seems the method they
are adopting to upset him and drive him away. Besides it is also
said that his Ministers are more or less playing him false and the
form in which the union has been obtained is considered by them
em Misserfolg, eine Niederlage, and that they wish to make him
alone answerable before the country for this. They wish to take
away all the Roumelian officers before the elections, as they are
also so much for Sandro. This all sounds bad. Most likely you
have the same news, but it is worth while being watchful and
giving him a friendly hint perhaps, if possible. His position is very
difficult, painful and dangerous. Meanwhile the Greeks seem com-
ing to their senses and one hears Alfred spoken of with much praise
as understanding his work so well. The blockade is already having
a good effect.

Meanwhile, M. de Giers, who had become Gort-
chakoff's assistant at the Russian Foreign Office in 1875
and was already marked out as his successor, had planned
a visit to Franzensbad to see Bismarck. The Crown
Princess dreaded such a meeting, and wrote to her mother
on May 29, 1886 :

All these speeches in Russia, at Sevastopol, Moscow, etc., are
very disquieting, I think, and yet if the Emperor of Russia is not
prepared to make war, now, and invent a pretext, I do not see
what the Russians mean to do. They have evidently tried all the
means in their power — the worst and most treacherous — to upset
Sandro and make a revolution in Bulgaria, and without obtaining
the result they expected! The Greek and Turkish affair seems
coming to a peaceable end, though there are no plums for them to
pick out of that pie. They say Giers is coming to Franzensbad and

20J

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1886 will pay a visit to Prince Bismarck at Friedrichsruhe. I sincerely
hope nothing will come of this, as it has always made mischief when-
ever these two have met. Wladimir and Mischka are at Berlin to-
morrow, but I shall not see them, as we are obliged to entertain
all the gentlemen of the Exhibition Committee here tomorrow.

It interested me very much to hear what Sir W. Jenner said
about Willy's ear! I see him every day and he is doing all right,
but has been much more amiable, friendly and civil, also more
cordial these last days. . . .

On July 6, 1886, Russia suddenly repudiated the clause
of the Treaty of Berlin under which Batoum, on the
Black Sea, had been declared a free port. Lord Rosebery,
the British Foreign Secretary, at once made a protest, but
British influence in foreign affairs had reached so low an
ebb that the protest was disregarded. A few days later
Lord Rosebery and the other members of the Liberal
Cabinet resigned, the general election of that month
having given Lord Salisbury and the Conservative party
a majority over all parties in the British parliament.

A month later, on August 8, the two Emperors of
Austria and Germany met at Gastein. To the amazement
of the Crown Princess, the Crown Prince was not invited
to be present, but her son William, however, managed
to find his way into the conference. Three days later the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

I hear from a perfectly undoubted source that my poor fat friend
at Petersburg * on being asked about Lord Rosebery's note about
Batoum said " Yes, he had received something, mau rien qui valait
la peine d'fore commwique ". I suppose he did not wish Germans
to know what sort of note it was ; but that Germans happened to
know, or guess, that an important and decided note was coming
or had come.

"We are rather horrified at hearing that William was at the
interview of the Emperors at Gastein and that he is going to

1 Sir Robert Morier.
206

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

Skerniewski to see the Emperor of Russia I It is perhaps not true, 1886
but as such things are always arranged between the Emperor and
William without consulting or informing us, it may be, and I
need hardly say that it would make endless mischief and do endless
harm. William is as blind and green, wrong-headed and violent
on politics as can be. He swears by Reuss VII. who is such a silly,
conceited and false individual — Russian down to his fingers' ends.
It is really rather hard upon us, and our position a very painful
one. I still hope it may not be.

Lenbach, the celebrated artist, is here and will be in England
next month! Will you please allow him to see the pictures at
Buckingham Palace ? Prince Eugene of Sweden paid us a visit
here yesterday. The Emperor arrives tomorrow morning.

P.S. — Prince Lobanoff told Reuss VII. that the Czar was quite
tired of the Bulgarian question and that he had said — if the Bul-
garians really chose to get on without Russian protection they
were welcome to it and had better try. This is not true! The
Emperor's animosity is more active and violent than ever! It was
only said to take in Reuss VIL, which it did.

A fortnight later the animosity between the Tsar and
Prince Alexander came to its climax. On August 22 the
young ruler was kidnapped at Sofia by Russian officers,
carried off to Keni Russi in Russian Bessarabia, and soon
afterwards compelled to abdicate at the pistol's point.
He was permitted to return to Bulgaria a week later when,
broken in health and spirits, he submitted to Russia, and
on September 4 announced his intention to abdicate. On
the 8th he left Sofia with simple dignity and on the 25th
General Kaulbars, the Russian Commissioner, arrived, and
began a policy of intimidation. Five days later, M. Tisza,
the Hungarian Prime Minister, declared for the main-
tenance of the Treaty of Berlin and Bulgarian independ-
ence, and this declaration stiffened the attitude of the
Bulgarian Regents and the premier, M. Radoslavoff, who
now began firmly to resist Kaulbars. Russia's reply was
to send warships to Varna and to land soldiers at that port.

207

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1886 Was ever anything so exasperating [wrote the Crown Princess
to her mother from Portofino on October 5, 1886] as the way
Kaulbars goes on in Bulgaria? One did not give the Russians
credit for so much stupidity, in spite of all their slyness and wili-
ness! They will set the whole population against them, which
would be a very good thing ! I hope no new Prince will be elected,
or, if a candidate of Russia's be chosen, that Europe will not accept
or recognise him. I hope the Russians will find themselves in a
regular hornets' nest. Their behaviour is too outrageous. . . .

Nor did the attacks on Prince Alexander in the Berlin
press give the Crown Princess any occasion for any
change of feeling :

The attacks [she wrote on October 23, 1886] of the Berlin
official press on Sandro continue — it is mean, and shameful,
besides utterly ridiculous. It is, of course, to flatter the Tsar, and
the great man (Bismarck), and impress our Emperor, but no one
else believes or listens to it in Germany.

To think of poor Sandro being held up as a danger to Germany
— an enemy to peace and the only cause of disturbance in Europe!!
— whereas the only disturber is Russia, and Russia alone! Why
not admit it, and admit that one is obliged to humour Russia from
fear, instead of making such far-fetched inventions to excuse and
explain one's policy? I think it shabby and nasty, and so do many
others. All this is very tormenting.

The Crown Princess was even more shocked when,
on November i, the Russian officers who had kidnapped
the Prince were released, and it became evident to all the
world that Russia was acting and had acted with a cynical
disregard for treaties or morality. The Crown Princess
was roused to anger at these indignities, and wrote to her
mother from Portofino on November 8 :

... I was sure you would think it monstrous as I do to liber-
ate those treacherous, abominable conspirators in Bulgaria, the
Russians having thereby the insolence and barefaced audacity to
proclaim to the world what at least one thought they would have
wished to conceal, that the shameful dastardly plot against Sandro
208

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

was of their making and carrying out! So much the better that it i88<5
was not invented by Bulgarians I Russian officials are capable of
any infamy, that is not new!

The Hungarian speeches seem very good. Amongst other
things, the Czar must be terribly misinformed. I suppose a word
of truth never reaches his ears — so-called absolute monarchs are
always dupes, consequently less free in their actions — while yield-
ing to their own caprice without restraint or consideration of any
kind. They are pushed by those who know how to excite them!
Tyrannical and violent as he is, I suppose he is the tool of the
Panslavists and of all the lying officials in his service. And it is to
this that the rest of Europe seems to bow at this moment. It does
seem rather humiliating, but I trust it will not last.

"What a time of it these unfortunate Regents are having.

In spite of Queen Victoria's indignation at the action
of " the barbaric, Asiatic, tyrannical " Tsar, as she wrote
to Prince Alexander,1 the British Government reached the
conclusion that Great Britain had no direct interest in
Prince Alexander's misfortunes. The declining influence
of Great Britain in Europe at this period was reflected in
the Crown Princess's letter to her mother of February 7, 1887
1887 :

We have heard from Petersburg, that the Czar speaks with
utter contempt of England, saying England had already quite with-
drawn from European politics and was too weak to take any part
in them, and was not to be feared in any way. Other Russians
say there is not a single gun on board a British man-of-war that
can be fired off, and not a single musket in the British army or navy
that had a proper bayonet, that they were all only imitation steel
and could not be used ; that the English ammunition was useless,
as it did not fit the guns, and the whole of the English army
administration so bad that it would break down if England dared
to go to war ; the British lion had no teeth, etc. . . .

The Persian Minister at St. Petersburg said that British influence

1 E. C. Corti, Alexander von Sattenberg^ sein Kampf mit dem
Zaren und Bismarck (Vienna, 1920), p. 267, where Queen Victoria's
whole letter is given in a facsimile reproduction.

P 209

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 was completely gone in Persia — (this is not quite untrue) — and
that India would not be long in British hands ; the prestige was
gone, the disaffection and discontent great, and the Army not to
be relied on.

It makes one so furious to hear all this. It is never so dangerous
to be underrated as overrated, and perhaps it is not a bad thing
that the Russians should underrate us so much.

Yesterday people seemed a little less alarmed about war ; but
the anxiety is still very great.

The Conservative Government of Lord Salisbury,
which had replaced Mr. Gladstone's Liberal ministry in
18865 now, however, began to take a great interest in
European affairs, which, by March of 1887, became so
overcast as to threaten a storm. Austria and Russia were
at loggerheads over the question of their respective in-
fluence in the Balkans.

It was while this question loomed so threateningly
over the European sky that there came to Berlin the
Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, the Emperor Francis
Joseph's heir, who had married, in 1881, Princess
Stephanie, second daughter of King Leopold II. of Bel-
gium. "Whilst in the German capital he had a series of
conversations with the Crown Prince and Princess of
Germany, and it was after one of these that the Crown
Princess wrote to Queen Victoria (March 17, 1887) :

Today Rudolph had a very interesting long conversation with
Fritz and with me! He said that he thought a war was inevitable
(which we do not). He spoke of the intense desirability of a
close understanding between England, Germany, Austria and Italy.
He seemed very anxious about the good understanding between
Austria and England, and said that the Austrian government
dreaded not being able to secure some sort of useful understanding,
as though Lord Salisbury might be willing, yet English cabinet^
changed so often, and with them the policy of the country, that it
made it so difficult to rely on England's help and her word. He
210

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

repeated that Count Kalnoky (the Austrian Minister of Foreign 1887
Affairs) was most English in his feelings and sympathies — that
Sir A. Paget (the British Ambassador) had a most excellent posi-
tion at Vienna and was very much liked there! Rudolf seemed
to think Count Karolyi (the Austrian Ambassador in London) so
baisse that he was of no use at all, and would not be ambassa-
dor for many months longer. Rudolf complained that the older
official men in Austria had so the habit of being deferential to
Russia that they forgot the exigencies of the present moment, and
he feared it was so here too, which, of course, we did not deny!
In the war, which Rudolf seems to think impending, he said that
if England would only assist in the Black Sea and keep the Turks
in order, preventing them from joining the Russians, the service
they would render would be immense! He very reasonably said
that in a war one could not do any serious damage to Russia —
provinces could not be taken from her, etc., the only positive
result that could be obtained would be to prevent her from gaining
her own ends and having her own way. He seems to think that
Russia will attack Austria in Galicia, and that it is all-important
Italy should promise to keep quiet and not attack or harass Austria,
so that the latter need not leave a soldier on the Italian frontier,
but take all the men she has to the north. Rudolf thinks England
could render inestimable service in keeping Italy in order, £.4.
seeing that she keeps her promises, as Italy's cabinets also changed
very rapidly and policy was very variable.

Rudolf thinks that if Germany helps Austria against Russia,
the French will instantly attack Germany and that the coming war
will be extremely serious! He thinks France far stronger, better
armed, better prepared and more patriotic than she was — Russia
also far more fit for fighting than she was during the Turko-
Russian war, but so shamefully governed and so fermented with
discontent that this alone made the Government anxious for war,
in order to create a diversion.

Rudolf says there is no denying that at this present moment
Russia played the first fiddle in Europe, and was the strongest power
and imposed her will on the rest ; and that this would remain a
constant danger, as she could get France to join her whenever she
liked. The only thing that could keep them in check was the
Alliance of the four other powers above mentioned! Rudolf says
that the Sultan distrusts England and Austria and is afraid of them,

211

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 while he has a great leaning to Russia and liking for Russians and
the Czar, which Rudolf had plenty of opportunity of noticing
while he was at Constantinople.

Rudolf says his father is still perfectly furious with the conduct
of the Russians in Bulgaria — he himself thinks as Fritz and I do.

I was unable to perceive anything of his idea of the Donaureich
which I have repeatedly heard is his hobby. He spoke with
marvellous clearness, intelligence and common sense and is quite
aufait of everything and has been entrusted with different messages
to Prince Bismarck. He is quite aware that his views tally more
with ours than with our Emperor's or Willy's.

Meanwhile, search was being made for a new ruler for
the throne of Bulgaria. On April 22, 1887, the Crown
Princess wrote to her mother :

Do you think it is true that Ferdinand of Glucksburg has been
lighted upon as candidate for the throne of Bulgaria ? We hear that
it is a close secret, and that a Prince has been found, though it is
not known who. So much seems certain, that the poor Bulgarians
are in such straits that they will jump at a Prince who is in any
degree eligible and then keep him. As Ferdinand is the first cousin
of Minny, it might be possible that he has been thought of. ...

There was an idea of Sandro's marrying Culma! 1 and she it
was who would not hear of it, because she heard that the children
would have to be Greek, which she thinks sinful. William was
very cross with her, and called her a goose j he had a great admira-
tion for Sandro in those days. If a Prince is found and accepted,
of course, all the Powers will be too glad to approve of him and
keep him there I But then, also, the dream of Sandro's returning
is over for ever! This is always urged by many who are dying
to see him return in triumph and become King, but still I think
he was right in refusing to go now. It would have been an awful
risk! Goltz Pasha says (but this only in confidence) that the Sultan
cannot bear Sandro, distrusts him and considers him the cause of

1 Princess Victoria Frederica Augustine Mary Caroline Matilda,
elder of the two younger sisters of Prince William's wife. Princess
Victoria married in 1885 Duke Frederick Ferdinand of Schleswig-
Holstein.
212

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

all evils and troubles, expenditure and uncertainty to the Porte 1887
and does not wish him to return! How far this is the work of
Nelidow, one cannot know! What does Sir William White say on
the subject? As Sir W. White and Goltz Pasha are friends, I
suppose Sir W. White could only say the same. Prince Bismarck
would prefer anyone to Sandro and any lady to a German candi-
date. He does not scruple to say that his policy is quite changed
since the Treaty of Berlin, when he boldly crossed Russia's plans
and went in for a Bulgarian principality which he thought would
develop into an independent state. He was glad then that it was a
German Prince! He advised Sandro to accept! Now, says Prince
Bismarck, the situation is entirely changed for Germany. Then,
France was nowhere, but now he considers France strong, and
very well armed, and he knows how easily a Franco-Russian
Alliance could be made!! He is right therefore in not offending
Russia, and in humouring her where he can, where he seems to me
to be wrong is in thinking that he can buy her friendship by any
sacrifice he could make! He is also wrong in allowing her to
strengthen herself, which she would if she got Constantinople and
the Black Sea via Bulgaria.

Europe has been very short-sighted, since she seems to think
that by dropping the Bulgarians altogether and leaving them to
their fate, she can prevent awkward questions from being raised
and can avert war. This seems to me a miscalculation. If Prince B.
had been anstandig he would have let Sandro know (because he
was a German) that Germany's position had altered, her policy
with regard to Bulgaria would be changed and he and his country
abandoned, instead of which Sandro was left to find that out
for himself at the risk of losing his life! This was more than
nasty in a statesman who had encouraged Sandro to go there!
If he had advised Sandro openly and kindly to leave — to re-
turn to Germany and throw up the game, as the Russians were
determined to crush him, and Germany was determined not to
interfere, Sandro could have retired when he pleased, instead of
being ruthlessly sacrificed to the treachery and wickedness of the
Russians and now ill-treated at home to please them and, as it were,
justify Prince Bismarck's conduct in his own eyes — towards his
victim! He furthermore tries to justify his conduct by accepting
every ridiculous lie and calumny against Sandro! This does not
blind impartial people, however, though it pains those who admire

213

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 and love Sandro very much. Russia, it seems, is turning her eyes
towards Egypt and Afghanistan, and seems to think it the best
and most promising field for mischief of her own kind and liking.
The state Russia is in seems to be a very unsatisfactory one to say
the least. I do not know what Morier writes, but we hear people
are quite prepared for fresh attempts on the Emperor's life.

We are rather shocked at Kaulbars (the Russian Commis-
sioner in Bulgaria) having received such a mark of favour from
the Emperor of Austria. It looks much as if those were right who
say that Kalnoky is very Russian and terribly afraid of Russia.

To return to what you said in your letter about Ernst Gunther j1
it distresses me much that he shows so little gratitude and proper
feeling towards Christian and Lenchen who have done so much
for him, and that he thinks only of himself and not at all of his
cousins. It is not at all nice and so surprising in the son of Fritz
Holstein! Not more surprising and painful, though, than that our
son should be as he is ; forget all love and gratitude and let himself
be used as a tool and instrument against his parents! William has
more brains than Ernst Gunther and can be very nice and amiable
when he likes! Vain and selfish they both are, and they both
hold the most superficial rubbishy political views — rank retrograde
and chauvinist nonsense in which they, in their childish ignorance,
are quite fanatical, and which makes them act as they do, each in
his way. It pleases the Emperor, Bismarck and his clique and the
Court, so they feel very tall and very grand! Bismarck is a great
man, and you know that I am always ready to give him his due in
all things and try my best to get on with him in every way, but
his system is a pernicious one, which can only do young people
harm in every way — to admire his blind followers and admirers
and the many who wish to rise by a servile and abject pandering
to his every wish and whim. These are all William's friends now,
and he is on a footing of the greatest intimacy and familiarity
with them! It is easy to see how bad and dangerous this is for him
and for us! Exactly what we knew it would be, when the Emperor
and Bismarck overrode all Fritz's objections, all his entreaties.
William's judgment is being warped, his mind poisoned by this!
He is not sharp enough or experienced enough to see through the
system, nor through the people, and they do with him what they

1 Duke of Schleswig-Holstein.
214

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

like. He is so headstrong, so impatient of any control, except the 1887
Emperor's, and so suspicious of everyone who might be only a
half-hearted admirer of Bismarck's that it is quite useless to attempt
to enlighten him, discuss with him, or persuade him to listen to other
people, or other opinions ! The malady must take its course, and we
must trust to later years and changed circumstances to cure him!
Fritz takes it profoundly au tragique, whilst I try to be patient and
do not lose courage! It is after all a very natural consequence of
the Emperor having enforced the contrary of all we wished and
thought salutary for William, and the natural consequence of
Bismarck's omnipotence. I hope you will not take any notice of
this when you see William and be as kind to him as usual — the
reverse would do no good, he would not understand it^ and only
put his back up. As you live so far away you are not censee
to know all this. I think and hope his visit to England may do
him a deal of good, as he is fond of being there and has been far
too little I He would be delighted to travel, see India, America,
China and Australia, but the Emperor will not let him. It would
be excellent for him.

April 23.

I really ought again to apologise for writing so much about
ourselves, but one's pen runs on when one thinks of the kind
and sympathetic spirit of the one to whom one's words are ad-
dressed. The dream of my life was to have a son who should be
something of what our beloved Papa was, a real grandson of his,
in soul and intellect, a grandson of yours. Waldie gave me hopes
of this — his nature was full of promise from the first, and I saw
it with such pride and pleasure, and thought I could one day be
of use to him I He is gone! and I can be of but limited use to
Henry, and of none to William in any way! But one must guard
against the fault of being annoyed with one's children for not
being what one wished and hoped, what one wanted them to be.
One must learn to abandon dreams and to take things as they
come and characters as they are — one cannot quarrel with nature,
and I suppose it knows best, though to us it seems cruel, per-
verse and contrary in the extreme. But it ends in one's feeling
somewhat solitary at times!

To return to Prince Bismarck, he has so much that is brutal
and cynical in his nature, so little that is noble and upright, he is
so completely a man of another century than ours, that as an

215

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 example or an ideal he becomes very dangerous. He is a patriot
and is a genius, but as a school there could not be a worse one!
Opinions such as William holds are very much the fashion now-
adays in Germany — they have half created the immense power
Bismarck possesses and he has half created them. But they are
only a phase in the development of Germany! I think a dangerous
and an unwholesome one, as they are a bad preparation for the
solution of all the grave and difficult questions which will have
to be the work of the next 20 or 30 years.

Mr. Gladstone, the Home Rulers and Parnellites are also a
strange spectacle. The Government have a very difficult task before
them! Mr. Bright wrote an excellent letter a few days ago, I
thought.

A week later (April 29) the Crown Princess, who had
not abandoned all hope of Prince Alexander regaining his
throne, wrote to Queen Victoria :

If only the Regency could go on governing for a time in Bul-
garia, and if only the miscreants could be punisjiejd, the Constitu-
tion modified and in time the Kingdom be proclaimed, then Sandro
could go back. But how can he if he is confronted by difficulties
which make it impossible to govern with success and which he has
no legal means of overcoming ? One could not advise him to begin
with a coup d'etat. Would the Russians swallow this without
war ? Would the other States hasten to recognise the new state of
things and in some sort of way guarantee its not being upset again
— or is it impossible ? Do you think this will and can develop in
the next few months ? If he is not interfered with and the inner
difficulties are arranged before he returns, by a military dictator or
something of the kind, then I am sure he could maintain himself, but
not unless. Of course Prince Bismarck will not care for or encourage
this solution — as Bulgaria is indifferent to him and he hates Sandro,
but for all that, whatever good comes out of such a situation will
be reaped by Germany, England, Italy and Austria} They cannot
and must not officially suggest further or push such a thing, as it
would force Russia for her honour's sake to abandon her present
passive attitude, and that would mean general war; but if the
Bulgarians could work it out themselves quietly and it then be
accepted, it would surely be the best that could be done. Russia
216

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

would have to digest her disappointment if she would not make war, 1 887
and all the others would be satisfied. Prince Bismarck's attitude of
friendship towards Russia, of course, forbids his even giving this
thing so much as a thought. He would never give either official
or unofficial advice to the Bulgarians or to Sandro, and on this
question keeps completely aloof, as it is the one with which he
can easiest oblige the Russians without sacrificing anything he
cares about! I only think that all this obliging is no use and of no
avail and that die Russians will do just what they please and ally
themselves with the French whenever they think convenient. At
present the good understanding between the other Powers makes
them think the moment inopportune! If ever Russia and Germany
become enemies, then Bulgaria becomes of the greatest importance,
and it is this eventuality that our best military men always keep
more in their mind's eye than Bismarck does — they all still look
to Sandro and value his military reputation and talents and his
Statesmanship and consider him a trump card, for such an oppor-
tunity which may however never come.

April 30.

I have every reason to believe that there are people at Darm-
stadt who are very ill disposed towards Sandro and his brothers,
and who encouraged Henry in the Auffassung of the Emperor,
Empress, William, Louise of Baden and Bismarck, which he has
very strongly. This is very tiresome, and a hard trial to poor
Moretta.1

A postscript which the Princess added sheds a little
further light on her opinion of Bismarck. Eight days
earlier, M. Schnabele, the French Commissary at Pagny
railway station, was arrested when within a few yards of
the German frontier, and imprisoned at Metz. There was
at once a great outcry in the French press over this
indignity, but the Crown Princess was not apprehensive
of any ill results.

In the Schnabele affair [she wrote] I think Prince Bismarck will
be very mild and conciliatory and not irritate the feelings of the
French purposely. When he likes to be versohnlick he can, as he

1 The Princess Charlotte.

217

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 was in the affair of the Caroline Islands with Spain, but it simply
depends on his own will and caprice.

The Princess was right, for that day (August 29) M.
Schnabele was released, and the affair ended.

In the preceding month, on July 7, Prince Ferdinand,
the youngest son of Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and
Princess Clementine of Bourbon-Orleans (known to the
Princess as " Aunt Clem "), was elected Prince of Bul-
garia by the Bulgarian parliament. The great powers all
decided not formally to recognise his sovereignty, and his
position from the outset was somewhat difficult.

The Bulgarians [the Crown Princess wrote on September i]
will soon realise that with the best intentions Ferdinand is not like
their Hero Prince, to whom they behaved so badly and whom
they must ever miss.

Her sympathy with Ferdinand's predecessor had indeed
in no wise diminished. On October 17, 1887, she wrote
to Queen Victoria :

How I envy your seeing Sandra ! I am so glad to think he is
with you ; I am sure it must do him good au physique et au moral.
Please tell me how you think him looking and whether he is in
good spirits!

In the following month the Tsar visited Berlin, and
the subject of Bulgaria came again under discussion. On
November 29, 1887, the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria :

What a row there is now at Berlin about the visit of the Czar
and Bismarck's conversation, his threats and hits against the
court and against the Orleans family! I should not wonder if
Bismarck had tried to fling a stone at Sandro to please the Czar.
The "whole business is neither pretty nor dignified, and I am heartily
glad we are not in the midst of it, but it is very bad for Willy.
218

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

Bismarck's uncompromising attitude to Prince Alex- 1888
ander did not, however, appease the Tsar and his minis-
ters, who were still determined to bring Bulgaria entirely
under Russian influence. In the event it seemed as if war
might break out again between Turkey and Russia over
the question of the principality, and on January 5, 1888,
the Crown Princess wrote :

Politics are not in a very quieting state, but still I hope and
think that war will be avoided. I think that Prince Bismarck
is at a great deal too much pains to prove to Russia that he
has no interest in preventing her from doing what she likes in
Bulgaria I Russia might have known that long ago, if she had
chosen, and if she does not choose to know it, or believe it now,
all the dirt Prince Bismarck is trying to throw at Ferdinand and at
the poor Orleans family will be of no use, and is so much pains
lost, just as all the infamies and treachery and calumnies, the
indignities he allowed to be heaped on poor Sandro's innocent
head, have not brought Russia's friendship as they were intended
to do!! These " middle age " fashions of treating politics I cannot
admire, and in the i^th century it is hardly the thing to take a leaf
out of the book of the Medici. I do love honesty and plain dealing,
fairness and simplicity, and one does so sigh and long and pine for
itl! One is so sick and weary of a system which stoops to means
which are so low, even be it wielded by ever so great a man,
and be its success and brilliancy worshipped by a crowd of short-
sighted admirers, who, their national vanity being flattered, fancy
themselves great patriots, while the standard of national sentiments
and aspiration is being lowered and deteriorated. How long, how
long, will all this last!!! I suppose it is to outlast us and our
lifetime!!! Prince Bismarck's power and prestige are greater than
ever, the poor dear Emperor is but a shadow, and Willy is Prince
Bismarck's willing tool and follower! " A quelque chose malheur
est bon."

Russia was now becoming more and more exasperated
with Bulgarian nationalist aims, and it was evident that
unless the powers signatory to the Treaty of Berlin could
bring diplomatic pressure to bear upon Russia, there was

219

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 risk of a second attempt being made to dominate the
Bulgarian ruler. On January 8 the Crown Princess
wrote :

I hear from the best sources that Prince Bismarck is doing all
he can to prevent war, in every way, and is intensely anxious for
England to show her determination actively to support the three
allied powers, Germany, Austria and Italy. Prince Bismarck also
disapproved of the talk about Fritz's resignation, etc., and equally
of William and Dona having attended the Stocker meeting. I do
not believe in a war! I think that if Russia sees so many arrayed
against her, she will draw in her horns and not plunge into so
unsafe an adventure. . . .

The Emperor is not quite well, having one of his attacks again,
which, though not dangerous, are very painful, I fear, and weaken
him. Bernhard has returned from Meiningen, where the sorrow
for his Grandmama is deep and universal. ... I wonder whether
all those things are in the eyes of B. ridiculous " quixotry ".
What we have suffered under this regime ! ! ! How utterly corrupt-
ing has his influence been on his school — his employes, on the
political life of Germany 1 It has made Berlin almost intolerable
to live in, if one is not his abject slave!! His party, his followers
and admirers are fifty times worse than he is! One feels as if one
would like to send up one great cry for deliverance and that if it
were answered, one great deep sigh of relief would be given. Alas,
all the mischief wrought would take years to repair!! Of course
those that only look at the outside aspect of things see Germany
strong, great and united, with a tremendous army (in time of war
near three millions of men!), a Minister who can dictate to the
world, a sovereign whose head is crowned with laurels, a trade that
is making an effort to outdo all others, the German element making
itself remarked everywhere in the world (even if not loved or
trusted). They cannot think we have any reason to complain, but
only to be thankful. If they did but know at what price all this is
bought! Perhaps you will think I am only croaking!

A week later, January 14, she wrote :

... I do hope and trust that Europe will not be so foolish
as to try and oblige Ferdinand to leave Bulgaria. It would be
22O

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

only inviting Russia to take possession of the country, which 1888
would really be iniquitous. Why should that unfortunate country,
which has become emancipated only so lately, be forced back,
under the yoke of Russia, by united Europe ? How sad to see the
whole work of Sandro's life undone again — his heroic efforts to
free his people made useless. One cannot have much sympathy
with Ferdinand, still if the Bulgarians like to have him and he can
manage to maintain himself and is ready to stay, what right has
Europe to upset him, and what interest in doing Russia's bidding
and fetching the chestnuts out of the fire for her ? Russia wants
to have Bulgaria, is afraid of getting into a big war, consequently
wishes the others to help her! Le., assist the great and the oppressor
against the smaller and the weaker! It would be a real shame. I
cannot conceive England or Italy doing such a thing, or Austria
either 1 Germany's policy has been so mean and so cynical through-
out that I should not wonder if she advised putting the country
under Russian rule altogether — little she cares for the legitimate
aspirations of a small nationality. Still I fancy she would never
interfere very actively. Russia has only two ways of possessing
herself of Bulgaria, the one is by a military occupation which means
war, the other would be the often-tried method of conspiracies
and of stirring up risings, etc., through secret agents, and by bands
of Montenegrins or Macedonians, as now at Burgas, but the Bul-
garians seem well able to cope with these attempts to overthrow
their Government!

I wonder what Sir William White says now and what the Turks
will do? The Russians have barred their own road to Con-
stantinople by their own bad behaviour to the Bulgarians. It would
be strange indeed if some of the Great Powers cleared the way for
them again and removed this obstacle. Do you not think so too ?
Morier is in England now and most likely would not be of my
opinion.

I do not think we shall have a war. The Czar does not wish
for one and Prince Bismarck is doing all he can to prevent it; the
French are also quieter now.

In the early days of 1888, Lord Randolph Churchill,
a friend of the Prince of "Wales, paid a visit to St. Peters-
burg with a view to finding some possible means of paving

221

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 the way to an Anglo-Russian understanding. He went
entirely in an unofficial capacity, and his entire visit
seemed to the Crown Princess to be somewhat "ill-
advised ". At Berlin en route. Lord Randolph met Sir
Robert Morier, the British Ambassador to St. Petersburg,
who was then on leave. Sir Robert warned the self-
appointed emissary of England against any discussion on
the international situation with authorities in Russia. The
warning was ignored, and Lord Randolph interviewed
not only M. de Giers, the Russian Chancellor, but also
the Tsar, and expressed in unequivocal language his
opinion that Russian and British interests were identical.
His actions, which by no means met with Queen Vic-
toria's approval, were now warmly denounced by the
Crown Princess, who wrote on January 31 :

I still think Lord Randolph Churchill's visit to Petersburg very
mischievous! It is childish of him to speakof England's policy under
the Liberal Government being friendly and loyal towards Russia.
Russia is never loyal to anyone, and therefore it is impossible to keep
to written agreements, or to be friendly ; though one need not be
the reverse. One can only avoid offending Russia needlessly, never
trust or believe her, and be always on the qui vive. I am afraid the
loyal and friendly attitude towards Russia was due to weakness and
indifference, blindness to real facts and an imperfect knowledge of
the whole Eastern question, its direct and indirect bearing on our
interests in India. Morier belongs to a school to which Lord R.
Churchill evidently leans, who think that India is completely to be
severed from the rest of the East and that what happens in the
Mahommedan world of Turkey or the Eastern provinces under
Russian rule in no way affects India. Such is not the case. I
wonder that those who consider themselves the friends of the weak,
the oppressed, of liberty and of civilisation, should be so ready
to see die people of the Balkans thrust back against their will under
Russian tyranny and oppression, should count for so little the
danger of seeing Russian power extend over that part of the world
to the detriment of Austria, to the detriment of the population of
222

PRINCE ALEXANDER OF BATTENBERG

the Balkans and certainly to the detriment of our own power ! Why 1888
should the rest of civilised Europe give way to Russia in every-
thing ? The worst Government in the world and the most corrupt
of States ! I cannot understand it! 1 Russia will not go to war if she
sees that the rest of Europe (France excepted) mean to resist her.
I hope Morier will do no more harm at Petersburg I It is very-
likely he might be dangerous with Crispi at this moment ; any-
thing which could spoil the good understanding between England
and Italy would be a great danger.

Lord Randolph's visit, however, did no great harm,
and won the approval of the Prince of "Wales. Inter-
national relations at this period, however, were not of such
a nature as to be mollified by courteous phrases, especially
with regard to the question of Bulgaria, on which the
Crown Princess wrote on February 15 :

Of politics I will say nothing — only that Fritz thinks if any-
thing so foolish is done as to attempt to put Bulgaria back under
Russia's control against her will, by consent of the Powers, endless
trouble will be the consequence. The development of this country's
independence did not owe its origin to any initiative, or ambitious
personal design on the part of its former Sovereign — it was a
thoroughly natural and popular movement (in spite of Prince
Bismarck trying to represent it as the reverse in his speech). This
movement was caused by the evil proceedings of the Russians and
by their attempt to thwart everything that was done to secure a
peaceful development of order and prosperity in that country —
an incessant war against the Government of that country, which
at last exasperated the people, and has made them firmly determined
not to be a Russian province any more than Greece, Servia or
Roumania. Should the Liberal Powers therefore accede to Russia's
demands (which she would make formally as soon as she thought
they would be granted) they would be committing an iniquity in
the first place and a blunder in the second.

In the event no change was made in the status of
Bulgaria for a decade, and then, in March 1896, the great
powers, Russia included, formally recognised Prince
Ferdinand as Prince of Bulgaria.

223

CHAPTER IX

THE ILLNESS OF THE CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

1887 THROUGHOUT all the trials and tribulations that disturbed
the life of the Crown Princess, there was one thing that
she could count upon— the love and sympathy of her
husband. Their mutual affection had known no cloud,
and it was with pleasant memories that they both looked
back on the past, and with confidence and hope that they
looked forward to the future. But there now appeared
the first indications of those agonising events which were
to destroy that beautiful serene happiness. It was in
January 1887 that the Crown Prince, then fifty-six years
of age, first began to suffer from hoarseness, and his
Physidan-in-Ordinary, Surgeon-General Wegner, soon
realised that it was sufficiently serious to warrant con-
sultation with a specialist, with the result that Dr. Ger-
hardt, Professor of Medicine at the University of Berlin,
was called in, and he, on March 6, diagnosed a small
growth on the left vocal cord, but was unable to say
whether it was of a malignant nature or not. A fortnight
later, on March 22, the Crown Prince, in making a speech
on the occasion of the Emperor's ninetieth birthday,
showed unmistakable signs of hoarseness.

Meanwhile, Dr. Gerhardt, uncertain as to the nature
of the " granula ", strove to remove it surgically. This
treatment, however, failed, and he then burnt it down
with the galvano cautery, but while, as the result of this
224

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

operation or series of operations, the growth disappeared, 1887
the hoarseness and some of the pain remained, and the
Crown Prince was advised to go to Ems, whither he
went with the Crown Princess on April 13. It was from
Ems that the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria
on April 29 :

... So many thanks for your kind enquiries after Fritz. His
spirits are far better here than at Berlin, and his throat seems daily
improving. All the irritation, swelling and redness is fast sub-
siding, he never coughs, and has not the feeling of soreness, but
part of the little " granula " which Professor Gerhardt could not
take off with the hot wire, because the throat was too much irritated,
is still on the surface of one of the Stimmbander and will have to
be removed when we go home, then I think the hoarseness will
quite disappear. Fritz now eats and sleeps and looks well. Of
course he takes no long walks and does not go uphill so as not to
fatigue or heat himself, and is asked to talk as little as possible. . . .

On the Crown Prince's return to Berlin early in May,
Gerhardt, however, found no signs of improvement : the
hoarseness remained, and the wound was not healed.
Professor Ernst von Bergmann, an eminent surgeon, a
liberal in politics and a friend of the Crown Prince, was
now called into consultation, and he expressed the opinion
that the growth should be removed by a surgical opera-
tion. A day or two later, on May 17, the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

... My heart is very heavy since this morning, as I find that
the doctors, although satisfied with the general effect of Ems,
which has taken all catarrh away, and satisfied with Fritz's health,
now discover that the lump in the larynx is not a simple granulation
on the surface of the mucous membrane which can be removed by
touching with the electric platina wire, but that it is most likely
a thing they call " Epithelion ", and that, if it is to be removed,
it cannot be got at from inside the throat, as it may also exist
under the larynx in a fold, where it cannot be reached. The cele-
Q 225

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 brated surgeon, Professor Bergmann, is for operating from the
outside, and you can imagine that this is not an easy operation or
a small one. I own I was more dead than alive with horror and
distress when I heard this. The idea of a knife touching his dear
throat is terrible to me. Of course Fritz is as yet not to know a
word about this. He is at times so very depressed . . . that he
now often thinks his father will survive him, and I have fine work
to make these passing sad thoughts clear away, which I am happy
to say they do after a short while.

Today the gentlemen consult again, and I am going to town to
find out from them what more they think and have resolved. . . .
My fear and dread is that a swelling of that kind, if not removed
by some means or other, might in time develop into a growth of a
malignant and dangerous character. I hope and trust and believe
that there is no such danger at present. I do so hope that the views
of Bergmann and Gerhardt are exaggerated. . . .

Gerhardt and Bergmann now suggested an operation
known as thyrotomy, involving the splitting of the larynx
and the removal of the growth, but suddenly Bismarck
intervened.

. . . The doctors [he records in his Reflections] determined
to make the Crown Prince unconscious, and to carry out the
removal of the larynx without having informed him of their inten-
tion. I raised objections, and required that they should not pro-
ceed without the consent of the Crown Prince. . . . The Emperor,
after being informed by me, forbade them to carry out the operation
without the consent of his son." 1

Bismarck now arranged for a further consultation at
which the best specialist advice was to be called in, and
this conference was attended not only by Gerhardt, Berg-
mann and "Wegner, but also by Dr. Schrader, Surgeon-
in-Ordinary to the Crown Prince, Dr. Lauer, Physician
to Emperor William L, and Professor Tobold, a senior
Berlin laryngologist. Their opinion, given on May 18,

1 Reflections, p. 331. See also Sir Rennell Rodd's Social and
Diplomatic Memories, p. 112 seq.
226

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

was that cancer was present, and that the surgical opera- 1887
don proposed by Bergmann should be performed. When
Bismarck read this report and understood the gravity of
die situation, he determined that the best expert in Europe,
no matter of what nationality, should at once be sum-
moned. Although strongly opposed to the Crown Prince
in politics, and disliking intensely what he regarded as
the " interference " of the Crown Princess in the affairs
of state, he felt that all differences of opinion were but
petty matters compared with this question of life or
death. There were two or three such specialists recom-
mended, one of whom was an Austrian and another was
an Englishman — Dr. Morell Mackenzie — whose acknow-
ledged eminence in laryngology was recognised by his
colleagues. His deftness of touch and his manipulative
skill were not the least of his recommendations, but he
was, as after-events were to prove, perhaps a little in-
discreet, over-sensitive and somewhat polemical.

Much controversy has arisen as to who selected and
sent for Mackenzie, and it was commonly supposed that
the Crown Princess was responsible for the summons
of the English surgeon to the bedside of her stricken
husband, and the fatal termination of the disease soon
afterwards has been seized upon to place her in a wholly
false position before history. " Her distrust of German
therapeutics ", to use the words of a recent German
historian, Dr. Emil Ludwig, " has come to be regarded
as largely responsible for his tragic and untimely end."
The foundation for this erroneous view is to be found in
statements circulated in the German press at that period,
and in such subsequent testimony as that of Dr. Henry
Semon, who quotes the private diary of his father, the
late Sir Felix Semon. According to this last version, the

227

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 Crown Princess asked Dr. Wegner who he thought was
the greatest throat specialist; Dr. Wegner, in reply,
pointed to Dr. Mackenzie's text-book, which had been
translated into German and prefaced by Sir Felix Semon,
who paid a great tribute to Mackenzie's skill. The Crown
Princess then, according to the Semon version, despatched
a telegram to Queen Victoria and requested her to arrange
for the attendance of the English surgeon forthwith, and
at the Queen's request Sir James Reid, her physician, left
Osborne for London to interview Mackenzie. In a letter
to The Times, dated January 25, 1928, Dr. Henry Semon
then goes on to relate that his father's unpublished manu-
script states that " when Reid had delivered his message,
Mackenzie showed him the cable he had received from
the German physicians, which requested him to start
immediately for Berlin'*. Sir Felix Semon also adds
about the Crown Princess that, during her interview with
Wegner, " when she had finished reading my preface to
the German translation of Mackenzie's book, she com-
manded Wegner to press for a consultation with Mac-
kenzie", and the result was the official telegram to
Morell Mackenzie from the German doctors.

There is, however, another version which appears to
be much nearer the truth. Sir Rennell Rodd, in a review
of Emil Ludwig's Kaiser Wilhelm //., published in The
Times of December i, 1926, questioned the accuracy of
several statements in this book. In proof of his conten-
tion, Sir Rennell Rodd relates how the Crown Princess
had come to luncheon at the British Embassy early in 1887
in order to attend a christening and how, when the conver-
sation turned to the Crown Prince's illness, Sir Edward
Malet suggested the possibility of obtaining another
opinion and the Crown Princess had in reply expressed
228

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

her ignorance as to who were the best authorities. Almost 1887
immediately after luncheon, however, Bismarck paid a
visit to the Ambassador and while conversing about the
illness said that arrangements had been made for a
British specialist to come to Berlin. There seems, there-
fore, no possible doubt that at luncheon that day the
Crown Princess did not know of the existence of Morell
Mackenzie, and further that the British specialist's original
summons came from the German doctors at the prob-
able instigation and certainly with the full approval of
Bismarck.

Dr. Emil Ludwig, however, refused to accept this
evidence, which was founded on the recollections of a
Secretary of Embassy after forty years had elapsed, and
preferred the general consensus of the German medical
authorities supported by Bismarck. It happens to few
men to be able to refute so completely the misrepresenta-
tions of an adversary as Sir Rennell Rodd was able to
do, when he published in The Times of January 18, 1928,
the following letter, written on November 14, 1887, by
the British Ambassador to Count Herbert Bismarck in
execution of a desire expressed by Queen Victoria that
he should counteract the circulation of stories injurious
to the Crown Princess by emphasising " the well-known
fact " that it was the German doctors themselves who
sent for Mackenzie. Sir Edward Malet's letter ran :

DEAR COUNT BISMARCK — Will you kindly glance your eye at
the passage which I have marked in this evening's Nordd&utsche
Allgemeine Zeitung ? You will see that to the Queen of England
also is to be attributed that the Crown Prince was committed to the
care of the English specialist. The context indicates that the word
" also " means that the other person was the Crown Princess. Now
as a matter of fact, of which I am sure that you are aware, the Crown
Princess had nothing to do with calling in Sir Morell Mackenzie,

229

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 still less the Queen. The report that the Crown Princess sent for
him originally is doing her great injury, and is devoid of truth.

Would it be possible, with reference to this paragraph, which
gains credence through appearing in the semi-official paper, to state
authoritatively in the same paper, or in the Reichs An%eiger> that
Mackenzie was called in by decision of the physicians attending the
Crown Prince, and that the Crown Princess was not even consulted,
and that certainly the Queen of England had nothing to do with it ?
I am sure your chivalry will make you feel as I do about these
statements.

Believe me to be, etc.,

E. B. MALET.

From a note appended to this draft [continues Sir Rennell
Rodd] it appears that Count Bismarck spoke to the Ambassador
about the matter the following day. He took the view that it was
not certain that the Crown Princess might not have suggested
Morell Mackenzie and that there was a danger of making matters
worse by publishing a statement which the German doctors might
dispute. He undertook, however, to speak to his father to see if
anything could be done. The Ambassador's positive statement that
the report was devoid of truth was justified not only by his con-
versation in the previous May with the Crown Princess, when she
said that she did not know who were the great throat specialists,
but also by what the Chancellor himself had told him at the time.
But his appeal to a sense of chivalry for the correction of a state-
ment devoid of truth . . . remained without effect, and the legend
received confirmation without protest . . .

One further testimony must be considered : in the
official report of the illness of the Emperor Frederick
published in i888? it is made clear that the name of
Morell Mackenzie was first put forward by "Wegner and
accepted by Gerhardt and Bergmann.

On the essential point all versions agree, that the first
request that Morell Mackenzie received to attend the
Crown Prince came to him from the German doctors,
and it was on this request that he acted?-

1 See Sir Felix Semon's Memoirs, p. 148, and Sir Rennell

230

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

The next day. May 19, the Crown Princess, who then 1887
knew that the German doctors had telegraphed for the
English specialist, wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I was over yesterday at Berlin to speak to the doctors,
and Bergmann told me that he would not decide on performing
the operation before Morell Mackenzie has given his opinion, but
that if Morell Mackenzie viewed the case exactly as he did, the
operation would take place at once. Fritz will not be told until
just before the moment. . . .

I spent a terrible day yesterday ; it is so difficult to appear un-
concerned when one's heart is so torn, and it is so important he
should eat and sleep and feel well — up to this moment. . . .

. . . All the doctors say that Fritz has been quite rightly treated
till now, and are satisfied that no time has been lost and that
nothing else could have been done, and that Professor Gerhardt
was the right authority to go to. I cannot telegraph much, as
already the talk and gossip at Berlin is considerable and people
are worried at Fritz's not appearing at the parades, etc., and one
does not wish to make an unnecessary stir. Of course, if M. M.
arrives soon, we will make him write to you and Sir W. Tenner,1
so that you are kept informed. I am not so frightened about
danger to Fritz's life ; thank God, I do not apprehend that, nor that
this swelling is of a cancerous kind, nor does Bergmann, who says
when once it is taken away, he does not think it will return ; but
I am so distressed to think that his dear voice, which is so necessary
to him in his position in the country and army, etc., will be gone,
and I know it will be an awful trial to him. . . .

On the evening of the 2oth, Morell Mackenzie arrived
at Berlin. After a preliminary but careful examination,
he announced that he was not sure that an operation was
necessary, and asked that a fragment of the larynx should
be removed and submitted to microscopic examination

Rodd's Social and Diplomatic Memories, vol. i. p. 112 seq. Also
correspondence in The Times, December i, 1926; January 18,21,
23, 25, 1928.

1 Queen Victoria's Physician-in-Ordinary.

23I

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 by Professor Rudolf Virchow, a man of European reputa-
tion as an anthropologist and pathologist. That evening
the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria from Berlin :

Dr. M. Mackenzie says he cannot advise an operation before
being quite sure that this growth in the throat is a malignant one!
He still has his doubts. He will not give a decided opinion until
he has seen more of Fritz, and thoroughly examined the throat
again. He will endeavour to detach the smallest fragment from
the growth and will have it examined under the microscope by
Professor Virchow, so that its nature may be established from this
— he will then advise what is to be done! Oh how relieved I am !
I shall be able to sleep tonight and look at my darling Fritz without
the agonising thought that tomorrow may be the last we have to
spend together. I bless Dr. M. Mackenzie. Of course I know the
operation may yet have to come off! 1

Prince Bismarck came to see me this afternoon and was really
very nice! He said his wife sent me word I was not to allow such
an operation. I said I had nothing to allow — what the responsible
authorities decided on as the best, we should have to submit to,
and we were bound to follow their advice.

The Emperor has sent for the doctors :

1. Prof. Bergmann.

2. Prof. Gerhardt.

3. Dr. Tobold (Specialist for Laryngoscopia).

4. Dr. Wegner.

5. Dr. Lauer (Emperor's physician).

6. Dr. Schrader (Wegner's remplofant).

They are obliged to ask the Emperor's permission for so serious
an operation and to tell him the whole, as they cannot tell Fritz.
I am sure the Emperor will not take it in, nor understand one word.
They have also sent for the Haus Minister and have written to the
Empress!

I can say for certain that the German medical gentlemen seemed
much less anxious to hurry on the operation after they had talked
with Dr. M. Mackenzie than before they had seen him! It seems
he did not know what he was called for and did not therefore,
unfortunately, bring his instruments with him!

We spend the night here and go back tomorrow after Dr. M.
232

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

Mackenzie has tried to obtain a little portion of the growth, which 1887
is very difficult and may not succeed until the fourth or fifth
trial

On the following day Mackenzie made another exam-
ination ; this time removing a tiny portion of the larynx
which he submitted to Virchow for investigation. Vir-
chow was unable to discover any sign of cancer, but
expressed the opinion that the fragment was too small,
and that another should be taken. It was now that the
views of Mackenzie and some of the German doctors
diverged. Bergmann and Gerhardt maintained that the
clinical signs indicated cancer. Mackenzie could not agree
until there was proof positive.

The next day, May 22, 1887, the Crown Princess
wrote to Queen Victoria :

This morning "Wegner brought Virchow's report on the little
fragment of the growth. He is unable to discover any sign of
cancer, but the fragment was too small and another will have to
be taken off tomorrow, which will be much more difficult, as the
growth being reduced in size by the little bit taken away, there
will be so little to lay hold of, and with the German instruments
Dr. Morell Mackenzie cannot do it! His own which he has tele-
graphed for arrive tonight at 10. Tomorrow morning he will try
(only in Wegner's and Gerhardt's presence) to obtain the bit
wanted. He still fancies that the growth is an innocent one until
the reverse is actually proved by Virchow's examination and till
then he strongly urges not deciding on this horrid operation! Of
course the suspense is very trying to me, but I own die hope held
out is a very great relief, and as I am sanguine by nature, I easily
cling to it. ...

I cannot bring myself to believe the worst, it seems too cruel!
I fancy all this will come right somehow and only the remembrance
of the scare remain, which was bad enough.

This letter, written from a daughter to her mother,
brings out clearly the attitude of the Crown Princess,

233

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 and it may be well here to consider the causes which
might have influenced her opinions.

The German Emperor, William L, was already over
ninety years of age, and in the natural sequence of life
could not for long sustain the burden of sovereignty.
The Crown Prince as his heir would, in the normal
course of events, succeed him, but if that Prince were
suffering from an incurable complaint that would render
him incapable of exercising the power of the crown, then,
it was argued by many, the Crown Prince should be
passed over in favour of his son, Prince William. Already
the dread word " cancer " was being whispered far and
wide, and it was certain that if the malady were pro-
nounced to be malignant there would be those who
would urge that " a sovereign who cannot speak should
not rule ". Rumours were circulated that the family laws
of the Hohenzollerns excluded an heir to the throne who
suffered from an incurable physical complaint, but these
laws contained nothing of the kind, and the Crown
Princess must have known that there was no such bar to
her husband's eventual accession. On this point Bismarck
spoke later with authority. "The family laws", he
wrote,1 " contain no provision on the matter, any more
than does the text of the Prussian constitution."

The Crown Princess had much of her mother's ten-
acity of royal power, and there were those who after-
wards did not scruple to say that during this period the
Crown Princess was anxious that for these reasons the
illness should not be diagnosed as cancerous, and that she
impressed her views on Morell Mackenzie. Such a charge
is baseless. There is not one jot or tittle of evidence in
favour of such a slander. Mackenzie and the other doctors

1 Reflections, vol. ii. p. 331.

234

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

were given a free hand subject to the wishes of the patient, 1887
and their opinions and treatment were unbiassed and un-
influenced by the Crown Princess. All that the Crown
Princess did, in fact, was to do what ninety-nine women
out of a hundred, German or English, would have done
in her place, and that was to place her reliance in the
specialist who gave the greatest hope for the complete
recovery of the patient. Naturally, she did not want to
see the husband she loved subjected to an unnecessary
operation, and it was with supreme joy that she received
on the following day Morell Mackenzie's and Virchow's
report to the effect that the second portion of the larynx
removed showed no signs of cancerous growth. Upon
this, the proposal to operate was abandoned, not, how-
ever, without protests from those who had suggested it
— Professors Gerhardt and Bergmann. Gerhardt later
alleged that during this operation Mackenzie had injured
the healthy right vocal cord, an accusation which Mac-
kenzie strenuously denied. Mackenzie was also accused
of purposely taking a portion of the healthy side of the
throat and sending it to Virchow, but it is quite incon-
ceivable that a man of Mackenzie's reputation should do
such a thing : nor does there appear to be any valid
reason why he should thus wish to deceive wilfully Vir-
chow and the Crown Princess. It must be remembered
that at this period the incipient stages of cancer were
difficult to recognise. Now it is known that there are
diseases of a non-malignant nature that so closely resemble
cancer that the greatest experts cannot tell the difference.
Thus, at the time, even the most skilful specialist in this
particular case could prove nothing, he could only main-
tain or deny that cancer was present. Much of the differ-
ence of opinion over the Crown Prince's illness had its

235

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 basis in the fact that medical science was then in so
rudimentary a stage with regard to these particular
complaints that diagnoses were often barely more than
guesswork based upon assumptions.

In any case, Mackenzie and the two German doctors
were now irremediably estranged — and when doctors
quarrel, the outlook for the patient is indeed gloomy!

Mackenzie was now anxious that the patient should
come to his clinic in England " like an ordinary mortal "/
and the Crown Princess approved the idea. On May 24,
1887, she wrote to her mother :

. . . We are much more hopeful and reassured about Fritz's
throat now. His voice is completely gone for the present, and his
throat feels sore and uncomfortable, but that is only from the little
operation of taking a little bit from the growth, I hope to be able
to tell you more in the course of a day, when Wegner, Gerhardt
and their colleagues have considered Dr. Morell Mackenzie's views
and proposals. He thinks he can cure Fritz quite well by treating
his throat from the inside, but of course one cannot pull about the
throat every day : it would do harm and set up general inflamma-
tion, irritation, swelling, etc., and everything must be done to
avoid this, and destroy the growth by degrees. If the other doctors
come round to this opinion in consequence of Virchow's researches,
then I think we need not be anxious any more, and only most
careful and conscientious to effect the best cure possible. . . .

Of course the public are very anxious at Berlin, as something
of the dread we were in is beginning to transpire.

Later.

Gerhardt, Wegner and Dr. M. Mackenzie were quite satisfied
with Fritz's throat this morning! There is to be one more con-
sultation and then Dr. M. M. will go home. Wegner and the others
want his advice carried out here and him to leave the treatment to
Tobold. This I think will make a muddle, and it would be better
for Fritz to go to Brighton, St. Leonard's, etc., and to have the
treatment carried out by Dr. M. M, himself, but I dare not suggest

1 Ballhausen, Elsmarcks Ermnerungen^ p. 390.

236

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

this last, as it would annoy the people here and make them angry 1887
with me. If they should propose it, then it would be another thing,
but I do not think they will!

Gerhardt says the treatment must be very slow and not hurried
in any way ; and he would wish that M. M. should carry it out
himself. I now leave it to them to settle their minds amongst
themselves and shall not interfere with them.

Gerhardt early expressed his opinion to the Crown
Princess, who wrote on June 2 to Queen Victoria :

I yesterday evening spoke to Prof. Gerhardt and begged him
to tell me exactly what he thought! He told me : " Ich sehe die
Sache von Woche zu Woche ernster an ! Das Stiickchen, welches
M. Mackenzie fortgenommen, ist wiedergewachsen — die Ge-
schwulst ist in Eiterung iibergegangen, &c. — jetzt ist auch die
andere Seite des Halses, das andere bisher freigebliebene Stimmband
ergriffen — ein Substanz-Verlust ist schon vorhanden. Wenn nickt
Dr. M, Mackenzie Jielfen und keilen kann, so giebt es keine Rettung
ausser die Operation von ' Laryngotomie ' — und zwar unter viel
schlechteren Bedingungen als vor 14 Tagen! Also ist und bleibt
meine ein^ige Hofrhung, dass Dr. M. Mackenzie recht behalten moge
in seiner Auffassung, und dass es seiner Behandlung gelingen moge,
denn wir haben nichts mehr vorzuschlagen." 1

Of course you can understand that this makes me utterly
miserable! Thank God, Fritz does not guess it and this will not
reach the ears of the public unless the doctors talk, which I have

1 Translation : " I regard the matter with increasing anxiety.
Where M. Mackenzie removed a small portion it has grown again
— the tumour is suppurating, etc., on the other side of the throat,
the other vocal cord, which hitherto has remained healthy, is
attacked — there is already a considerable amount of damage done.
If Dr. M. Mackenzie cannot assist and cure it there is no chance
of recovery save in the operation known as * Laryngotomy '. It
would have to be performed under far less favourable conditions
than would have been the case fourteen days ago. Therefore my
only hope is that Dr. Mackenzie may be right in his opinion and
that his treatment may be successful, for we have nothing else to
suggest,"

237

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 implored them not to do! I keep it quite to myself, but I feel
wretched, and my nerves are in a very shaky condition from the
constant anxiety and uncertainty and the strain to appear perfectly
unconcerned. The doctors wish Dr. M. Mackenzie to come here
once more and have a consultation with them, and then we shall
go to England and take Prof. Gerhardt with us for a short while
and then one of the others will come in his stead to report on the
course and result of the treatment and state of Fritz's health. I
am having enquiries made about small quiet hotels near London,
Chislehurst, Richmond, Surbiton, Hampstead, Sydenham, Wim-
bledon, where we could go, so that Fritz was not in town, but
could go daily to Dr. M. M., or see him daily. Fritz must not
talk, so he must keep out of everyone's way! His one hope and
wish is to be at Westminster Abbey on the 2ist [for Queen
Victoria's Jubilee] and represent the Emperor. I have told the
Emperor so yesterday! He agreed to this if the doctors allow it!
If M. Mackenzie allows it, we can then go to Norris Castle the
beginning, or near the middle of July! ... I hope from there to
be able to appear at whatever F£tes you may wish to have me,
but he must not ; it is very hard upon him, and he is terribly
depressed, as he wanted to go about and see so many people and
things in London and had so long been looking forward to your
Jubilee! He is also terribly annoyed at William wishing to come
forward so much and take his place without asking him, etc.
However all this, painful, disagreeable and disappointing as it is,
must be borne without a murmur, and so long as his throat gets
right, and if Dr. Mackenzie's opinion and hopes and the promises
he held out gain the day, we must be satisfied! . . .

People here do not half like Fritz leaving the country on account
of the Emperor's age, and yet he clearly ought to go to England
and get himself cured by the only person who has said that he
thinks he can cure him!! . . .

Preparations were now being made in England for
the celebration of Queen Victoria's Jubilee to com-
memorate her fifty years' reign* The Crown Prince was
determined to represent the German Emperor, although
the suggestion had been made that Prince William should
do so, and the Crown Prince thought that advantage
238

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

might be taken of his visit to England to undergo the 1887
treatment that Mackenzie had suggested.

Meanwhile, the doctors still disagreed. Bergmann and
Gerhardt clung to their opinion, and Mackenzie, sup-
ported by Virchow's analysis, clung to his. The Crown
Princess, the German Emperor and Empress, and Bis-
marck himself all knew of this divergence : any one of
them, with insistence, might have supported Gerhardt
and Bergmann's opinion and have compelled an opera-
tion. None insisted. Each of them left it to the doctors
to decide what was best. The German doctors produced
statistics to prove that the operation they recommended
was successful in seven cases out of ten : Mackenzie
believed he might be able to effect a cure in two months.
With such an alternative before them can anyone blame
the Crown Princess, the German Emperor and Empress,
or Bismarck, for giving Mackenzie a fair chance? All
acted in the best of faith and without arriere-pensee.
When life is in danger all other interests are subsidiary.

On June 3 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen
Victoria :

I am still struggling between hopes and fears, I cannot bring
myself to believe that the German doctors are right! People tor-
ment me with questions — some say it would be my fault if anything
happened to Fritz in England, etc. "Wegner is haunted by the idea
that the swelling may suddenly in the course of a few hours grow
so large that suffocation may be imminent and tracheotomy have
to be performed instantly, that we should therefore not leave home!
This fear seems to me exaggerated and the case highly improbable,
but I am not a doctor! Others are again tormented by the idea
that Fritz may be helpless in bed in England and the Emperor die,
when he cannot be had!!! All these things are always possible,
and one cannot be kept a prisoner here, or be prevented from
following a useful course by the fear of what might happen.

Dear old Roggenbach [Baron von Roggenbach, the Prussian

239

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 representative in Frankfort] was here for two days and I cannot
say with what touching and fatherly care he gave us his advice —
really so good and kind! He is most anxious for Fritz to go to
England, and also thinks it would frighten and depress Fritz
terribly if he were not allowed to go to "Westminster Abbey on
the 2 1 st. He is full of grave apprehensions, but thinks — happen
what may — the awful operation of Laryngotomy ought not to be
allowed. It is too dangerous and if it succeeded would leave the
patient a broken man! One other older and fatherly friend, to
whose devotion I can trust, is excellent General W. von Loe —
he is a celebrated and eminent Cavalry General; by a curious
coincidence and in spite of William being one of his followers
and admirers, he well knows that it would be very dangerous, if
such young heads suddenly took up the task left by an aged
Sovereign of 90! People are disturbed, nervous and anxious and
alarmed, and I shall be glad if Dr. M. Mackenzie comes and again
finds it in his power to dispel all these fears! I have one instinctive
feeling that they may not be founded on any real facts, but the
doubt is very disagreeable and wearing, especially as it must be so
carefully concealed from the dear patient, who is oftentimes much
depressed. . . .

I must ask a favour of you! Under the present circumstances
and for the present, it would be the greatest relief to us if we could
bring over all our private papers to England. Would you allow
them to be locked up in the iron room leading out of dear Papa's
Library at Buckingham Palace ? We should feel much happier.
I can explain more when we meet.

Mackenzie by now doubted the diagnosis resultant
upon his early removals of minute portions of the larynx
and now decided, without informing Gerhardt, in order
to be perfectly sure one way or the other, that two further
particles should be removed. Accordingly, on June 8,
another operation was performed. The Crown Prince
was now in excellent health and eagerly looking forward
to his visit to London to take part in the Jubilee re-
joicings. The day following this operation the Crown
Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :
240

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

I can write to you today with a much lighter heart, as Dr. M. 1887
Mackenzie sees no unfavourable symptoms in my darling Fritz's
throat since he last examined it. He has removed two tiny particles
of the growth and Virchow will again examine them! I hope then
the Doctors, who are like St. Thomas the unbeliever, will at last
believe that it is of a harmless nature! Of course, Mackenzie cannot
swear that this benign growth may not become a malignant one,
but he sees no reason to assume this! The only one thing which
is in any way against the best prognostication is that Fritz is of
an age in which growths are usually not of an innocent nature —
the harmless ones are pretty common with children and young
people. . . .

One is really driven half distracted with all these things.

Virchow's report upon the particles removed in the
second operation corroborated Mackenzie's opinion.

In spite of the most careful examination [he reported] . . .
no single portion was detected which has been pathologically
changed sufficiently to make this worth mentioning. ... In this
operation a more central portion (of the growth) has been gripped
... the healthy condition of the tissues close to the cut permits
of a very favourable prognostic opinion. But [he added] whether
such an opinion would be justified concerning the whole of the
malady cannot with certainty be determined from the two extirpated
pieces. In any case there is nothing present in them that could
arouse the suspicion of further and more serious disease.1

The relief of the Crown Princess at the pronounce-
ment may be imagined.

The scene of this tragic drama now moved to England,
for it was hither that the Crown Prince and Princess
journeyed for the dual purpose of attending Queen
Victoria's Jubilee and of having the advantage of the
treatment which Mackenzie had prescribed. Wegner and
Landgraf (Professor Gerhardt's laryngological assistant)
accompanied the royal party, which arrived in England
on June 14.

1 Sir Felix Semon's Memoirs, p. i ji.

R 241

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 887 When Queen Victoria passed in procession on June 2 1
from Buckingham Palace to "Westminster Abbey, there
rode in the cavalcade of thirty-two princes the towering
Lohengrin-like figure in the white uniform, silver breast-
plate and eagle-crested helmet, of the Crown Prince of
Germany— a tragic figure, outwardly the embodiment of
princely grace and splendour, but inwardly conscious that
if it was indeed cancer that had laid its stranglehold upon
him, his span of life was drawing to a close.

At the close of the Jubilee festivities, the Crown
Prince and Princess spent two months in England — first
at Norwood, then in the Isle of Wight, then in Scotland.
Whilst the Crown Prince was in England another doctor
had been called into consultation — Dr. Mark Hovell,
senior surgeon to the Throat Hospital. Mackenzie was
anxious that the Crown Prince's absence from the German
court should now be prolonged, but the failing health of
the nonagenarian ruler of Germany rendered his return
to Berlin imperative unless events were to be left " en
Tair " or in the hands of Prince William. The Crown
Princess fought, as she herself expressed it, " tooth and
nail" for the continuance of her husband's stay in
England, As she wrote to her mother on August 30 :

... I have received letters from influential persons from Berlin
saying Fritz must come home, that his health was only the first
consideration when it was a question of real danger to life, that
he was not a private individual and therefore could not only do
what was best for his health, that the Emperor might often be
persuaded from attending to business, that affairs could not be left
" en Fair " nor committed to William's hands, and that Fritz must
therefore not leave Potsdam and Berlin. I shall have to fight this
tooth and nail! It would be madness to spoil Fritz's cure while he
is in a fair way to recovery, but not well yet! I know the life
there, the fatigues, the constant calls upon us and duties without
242

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

end!! He would never cure his voice. . . . The Emperor, the 1887
Empress and Bismarck wish Fritz to be cured first, but I admit
that they do not see or know all the reasons which have been put
forward by these other people, the Generals, etc. ... It is rather
hard that because the Emperor has constant little attacks Fritz is
not to be allowed to get well in the proper way ! ! It seems to me
sacrificing the future to the present. Fritz writes to me overjoyed
that you have so kindly promised to knight Dr. Mackenzie — he is
especially pleased at this kindness of yours and very grateful.

The fight which the Princess made to prevent the
return of her ailing husband to the bustle and activity of
Berlin was successful, and when, on September 3, the
Crown Prince and Princess left England it was, on Sir
Morell Mackenzie's 1 advice, to Toblach in the Tyrol that
they went. Dr. Hovell alone accompanied them, but he
was joined a few days later by Major Schrader, Surgeon-
in-Ordmary to the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince and Princess had been accom-
panied to England by the principal officers of their suites,
and it was unfortunate that at Balmoral a quarrel broke
out between the Crown Prince's Court-Marshal, Count
Leszczyc de Radolin-Radolinsky and the Crown Prin-
cess's private secretary and Court Chamberlain, Count
Seckendorff. The quarrel had originated some five years
earlier, when Radolinsky had been appointed to the
Crown Prince's suite in order to watch Seckendorff*2
On September 9 the Crown Princess wrote from Toblach
to her intimate friend Lady Ponsonby :

... I am jo thankful to you for having given me this correct in-
formation about Ct. Radolinsky's conversation at Balmoral. Count
R. behaves in the strangest fashion ; and is more dangerous than

1 He was knighted by Queen Victoria on September 2 at the
request of the Crown Prince.

2 See supra, p. 192.

243

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 I can say. Curiously enough before I got your letter at Munich, I
saw an old friend of ours, old Baron v. Roggenbach at Frankfort,
and he told me that Ct. Radolinsky had been at pains to speak to
all the Emperor's gentlemen at Ems in exactly the same strain, and
the same words you write to me! My friend was quite disgusted.

Of the vox populi against Ct. S , which Ct. R is so

fond of speaking about, I can find out nothing. My friends say it

does not exist, but that of course Ct. S has enemies! It is

these who have got hold of Ct. R and taken advantage of

Ct. R.Js credulity, of his excitability and of his irritation against

Ct. S . The principal person who works in this direction is

Ct Eulenburg! You know what a false, unscrupulous, ambitious
man he is ; — he owes Ct. SeckendorfFa grudge and wishes to injure
him — as he is very jealous of him ; and fears Count Seckendorff
might prevent the Crown Prince from listening more to him in
future. Count Radolinsky is sincerely attached to us, but he quite
forgets it is not his business to take our affairs out of our hands
and try to settle them as he thinks right and fit (out of devotion)
behind our backs and against our will! If he has let himself be
persuaded that it is for our good, he will dash violently into a
thing, and use the least fair of measures to accomplish his ends
without hesitation. How can he say " the family had asked him
to speak to the Queen " ? Who are " the family " ? At Berlin they
consist of the Emperor and Empress who are on our side and not
on A£y, — and our three eldest children who are oho on our side —
and not his! Therefore that is an inventionl What business of his
is Ct. S.'s promotion or non-promotion? He is not his superior!

I had a long conversation on board the yacht with Ct R .

He referred to my letter to him, and said that he thought it very-
hard and most cruell He said he had never spoken to any members
of the English court on the subject, but they had asked him so
many questions, and had forced the subject upon him. He had
found so great a dislike and indignation against Ct SeckendorfF
at the English court that he had not needed to add his own im-
pressions ; it had only been a proof more to him of how widely
spread Count S.'s bad reputation was!! I gave Ct. Radolinsky
a piece of my mind, but whether I shall thereby stop him in his
insane endeavours to get rid of Count S. I do not know. Ct Rado-
linsky has been to Prince Bismarck about it, and has also begged
Herbert Bismarck to work on his father and on our son William in
244

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

this sense!!! Old Prince Bismarck does not go out or mix in the 1887
world and is thoroughly dependent on the tales that are carried to
him by his satellites, which he always implicitly believes.

You will admit, dearest Mary, that this is not pleasant. It is
what is commonly called a very nasty intrigue! Count R. is now
at Berlin and here there is peace and harmony. . . .

I miss beloved England terribly, more and more! the simple
truthful ways — the straightforward yet keen-sighted, manly men,
the refined and intelligent women, the pleasant ways and kind hearts,
the unchanging friends and dear memories of old! Germany has
other charms and other blessings, but I often feel very solitary, and
rubbed up the wrong way. I plunge into all the serious thoughts,
books and pursuits I can, to steel myself with philosophy against
the pricks and thorns that will make one sore even if one is deter-
mined to rise superior to them. . . .

It was at Toblach that the Crown Princess heard more
of the intrigue and machinations for setting aside the
Crown Prince in favour of Prince William. All these
might have been countered and perhaps checked had the
Crown Prince and Princess returned to Berlin, where
Prince William and Count Herbert Bismarck, the son of
the veteran statesman, were gaining in power and in-
fluence every day. But her husband's health was the first
consideration of the Crown Princess, who wrote to her
mother on September 14 :

You will remember how earnestly we wished William to leave
Potsdam, so as to be out of the Berlin and Potsdam atmosphere,
both socially and politically so bad for him, where he is flattered
and spoilt, and makes the Emperor do everything he likes! All the
older Generals were of our opinion. We hear today that William
has frustrated all these attempts and plans and made the Emperor
decide that he is to remain at Potsdam (which means spending half
the day at the Foreign Office with the great man's son and satellites
and the evening with the Empress). Fritz is much annoyed, and
people write to him saying how necessary it is for him to be at
Berlin, to be some little check on William! But Fritz cannot and
must not go to Berlin. His voice is much hoarser again and the

245

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 throat not so well, but it varies and today it is less red than
yesterday!

Whilst at Toblach the health of the Crown Prince
appeared to improve, and in many journals, both British
and German, Mackenzie was lauded as the man who had
saved the Crown Prince from a dangerous and un-
necessary operation.

Preparations were now being made in Berlin to cele-
brate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Prince Bismarck's
appointment to the office of first minister. The Crown
Princess regarded the " fuss " as somewhat exaggerated,
and on September 27, on the eve of leaving Toblach,
which was now proving too wet and cold for the invalid,
to proceed to Venice, she wrote to Queen Victoria :

We leave early tomorrow morning. Alas ! the weather has quite
spoilt this afternoon, so that I fear our long drive tomorrow will
not be pleasant and we shall see nothing of the beautiful country
between here and Langoram, which is all new to me, and I was so
anxious to see! This is very disappointing. . . . From Germany
we hear that it is very cold everywhere, so that I am glad we are
going south ! What a fuss has been made about the 25th anniversary
of Prince Bismarck coming into office! More than one sad and
bitter thought fills our mind when one thinks of the means he has
used to achieve great things and of the havoc he has made of
much that was precious, of good and useful men's lives and
reputations, etc., and of the evil seeds he has sown, of which we
shall some day reap the fruits.

It is perhaps not his fault, he is un homme du mqyen age — with
the opinion and principles of those dark days when la raison du
plus fort etatt toujours la meilleure and what was humane, moral,
progressive and civilised was considered silly and ridiculous, and a
Christian and liberal spirit absurd and unpraktiscL The young
generation see his prestige and his success and are proud of it and
like basking in the sunshine of his fame and celebrity. He has
done very grand things and has unequalled power and unrivalled
strength at this moment! Oh, if they were but used for the good
246

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

cause, always one would be ready to admire and to bless him! He 1887
has made Germany great, but neither loved, free, happy, nor has
he developed her immense resources for good! Despotism is the
essence of his being ; it cannot be right or good in the long run!

Whilst at Venice the Crown Princess wrote to Lady
Ponsonby (October 5) :

... I wish you were here with us at Venice! How I should
like to go about with you, and we should both never cease admiringl
I have to bottle up my enthusiasm a good deal so as not to bore
my fellow-travellers, who cannot share it. I am not able to enjoy
things as usual, nor with as light a heart, as the Crown Prince is,
of course, unable to be out much, and may not speak, though,
alas! he will not obey the strict injunctions of the doctor, and
refrain from using his voice more than a very little! It is very
difficult in a town, and going about, which, of course, amuses and
interests him.

We are going to Baveno tomorrow and trust we may have a
fortnight's fine weather. I miss the walks and the pure air, the de-
licious pine-woods and splendid scenery of Toblach, even here, in
lovely Venice.

Dr. (Morell) Mackenzie is satisfied, on the whole, but evidently
the tendency to catch cold and the delicacy of the throat are very
great. The slightest thing causes swelling and congestion, pain and
hoarseness, and, of course, retards and impedes progress. This
makes the Crown Prince much more depressed, impatient and
fidgety than he need be, and incessant letters from Berlin, impressing
the " necessity " of returning to Germany, and the bad impression
produced by our absence, are very galling.

Count Radolinsky writes to me that people put the blame on
me for keeping my husband away from home. I answered that
I thought such criticism was as unjust and ignorant as it was
spiteful and impertinent. " Travailler pour le rot de Prusse" is a
good French saying, for I am weary of being constantly blamed
and picked to pieces by people who have no right and no business
to meddle in our affairs. Whenever anything is wrong, it does not
matter what it be, it is put on my back. The court and official
world find me a very convenient scapegoat. It is rather flattering
in one way, as it shows they think me too good-natured to be likely

247

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 887 to pay them out one day. Most of these amiable people are not
worth knocking down, even if one had the power of distributing
a few coups de poing. Of kind and good friends I have so many
in other circles that I really do not mind ; but at times I feel the
ingratitude I meet with very bitterly, as I am conscious of trying
to be as civil and courteous to everyone at Berlin as I can ; of
trying to do a good turn to people whenever I am able, and of
trying to please : but there are those who will not be pleased. I am
an English woman, suspected of Liberal, of free-thinking and
artistic tendencies ; of cosmopolitan and humanitarian sentiments
and the like abominations in the eyes of Bismarck; so I am
labelled " suspicious " and " dangerous " by the clique who are all-
powerful now. I cannot help it. I keep as quiet and make myself
as small as I can, but I cannot change my skin to please them, nor
shall they tread me underfoot, as they would like to some day.

After all, it is only sometimes that I boil over with annoyance,
as I usually feel how much greater and better and more useful
people than I am have been continually attacked and abused and
more from ignorance than evil intention. So one ought to make
every allowance for people's different tactics, views and opinions.
" Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner ", and one must learn the
hard lesson of being tolerant to the intolerant, which I try very
hard to learn, . . -1

On October 6 the Crown Prince and Princess left
Venice for a three weeks' stay at Baveno, near Lake
Maggiore, where Sir Morell Mackenzie again visited his
patient. It was from the " Villa Clara " at Baveno that
the Crown Princess wrote on October 9 :

Dr. Mackenzie left yesterday morning. He will write to Dr.
Reid as soon as he gets home. He thinks Fritz getting on very
nicely, but says it all depends on him and if he will not talk and
avoid cold and damp — he may be quite well in three or four
months! Whenever Fritz's throat does not hurt him he is very
unmanageable and gets very impatient of any restraint, but I hope
he will be encouraged by the progress he is making in doing all
the doctors beg him. . . .

1 Mary Ponsonfy, pp. 258-259.
248

ILLNESS OF CROWN PRINCE FREDERICK

It was here at Baveno that the Crown Prince and 1887
Princess were visited by their son William, who, as the
Princess wrote to Queen Victoria on October 17, " till
now is very nice, amiable and friendly ". " Henry ",
she added, " comes tonight, and I hope he will be nice
too/' Apparently both sons were considerate and cour-
teous, and refrained from expressing their doubts as to
Mackenzie's ability as a doctor.

Fritz [the Crown Princess added] promises to be good and not
to speak. He is dreadfully annoyed by all the foolish articles about
himself in the German newspapers! They are as tactless as they are
impertinent and unfair! Most likely you have read them! He is
going on quite nicely. Dr. Hovell is very clever and inspires me
with the greatest confidence!

The penultimate references were to a series of articles
then current in the German press, possibly inspired by
Bismarck, which hinted that the Crown Prince knew that
his disease was cancer, but that on the ground that he
wished to reign, did not want to be pronounced incurable !

The Crown Princess now wrote to her mother
(October 25) :

There is nothing new to tell you about Fritz beyond that at
times his throat is a little more congested than at others! I think
his voice has improved, it seems clearer and stronger to me, but
he will not believe it! ...

Meanwhile the aged Emperor was showing distinct
signs of failure, but as yet no serious alarm was ex-
pressed as to the state of his health. On October 31 the
Crown Princess wrote from the Villa Clara :

Fritz is hoarser again, but not from any cold, or any apparent
reason — the voice is better at times and then again less well. He
is taken the very greatest care of and cannot well catch cold. The
Emperor seems no worse, so that we are not alarmed about him. . . .

249

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 The continued absence of the Crown Prince from
Germany now caused more grumblings at Berlin, and
when it became known that he proposed to stay at San
Remo for a time, the dissatisfaction increased. On
October 27 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

I am driven quite wild with the newspapers of Berlin and dear
Ct. Radolinsky keeps writing that people are so angry with me
for choosing San Remo — and for not calling in another German
doctor 1 Really it is excessively impertinent of these people! The
Emperor would not have others forced upon him if he were satis-
fied ; so why should we ? It is impossible for Fritz to be better
treated and more carefully than he is! To disturb the treatment
would be to run the risk of spoiling it. It would be too wrong. Pray
say nothing about my having told you what Ct. R. wrote! You
cannot imagine how spiteful and nasty people are — and how I get
teased and tormented! On the other hand there is so much real
concern about Fritz's health and real love and devotion to him
— then one is glad to see people care so much and take it up so
warmly. But there is a clique who are determined to find fault, and
to criticise all and every thing — and who are half jealous of his
having an English doctor and living in an English house and think
it a fine opportunity to have a fling at me! It is so foolish and
narrow-minded and unreasonable! When one is only trying one's
best to cure Fritz as soon as possible. . . .

We leave on Wednesday, November 3rd, for San Remo and have
taken the Villa Zirio — belonging to an Italian, and built by him!
I am sure Kanne could tell you all about it. It is very expensive
but new and clean — and pretty comfortable, I believe, which is so
important for Fritz! . . .

A few days later the Crown Prince and Princess left
for San Remo with high hopes. Up to this point,
Mackenzie's optimistic prognostications had been almost
justified. No further bad symptoms had developed, and
there were many hopes that the patient was on the high
road to recovery. At San Remo, however, the third phase
of the illness was to unfold its tragic events.

250

CHAPTER X

SAN REMO

THE Crown Prince and Princess had barely been 1887
twenty-four hours at the Villa Zirio in San Remo when
the most drastic change in the condition of the patient
was noticed by Dr. HovelL The Crown Princess at once
telegraphed for Sir Morell Mackenzie, who arrived on
November 6, and thereafter never left his patient until
the end. Mackenzie now at last realised that the disease
was more serious than he had thought, and when asked
by the Crown Prince if the malady were cancer, replied :
" I am sorry to say, sir, it looks very much like it, but it
is impossible to be certain." l That day the distracted
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I am in a desperate hurry to catch the post, and so can
only say that in the last few days Dr. Hovell has perceived a new
swelling in a new place, the appearance of which he did not like,
and he wished Sir Morell Mackenzie to see it as soon as possible.
Sir Morell arrived this morning, and is not satisfied with the look
of the place \ it has a malignant character about it and symptoms
which do not please him. He will, however, not give a decided
opinion about it, nor is he at all certain that it is really bad ! I can
say no more now, except that this makes me very miserable. The
doctors have communicated their fears to Fritz, which has de-
pressed him very much. We have let the Emperor and Empress,
our three eldest children, and Prince Bismarck know of this out
of pure prudence and conscientiousness. Two other doctors
(Professor von Schrotter of Vienna and Dr. Krause of Berlin) will

1 Morell Mackenzie, Frederick the Nolle, p. 65.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 come to consult with Mackenzie, but not those who made such a
mistake this spring. There is no need for alarm, still one cannot
but be uncomfortable. All was going on so well ! His voice had
nearly quite returned. Of course it is gone again now. Fritz has a
good deal of pain at times, but all over the throat, not in that
special place! This sudden and rapid change in his state has taken
us very much aback.

His general health is as good as possible, but these last two days
he looks worn and anxious, poor dear! It is really a hard trial.

The consultations and investigations that now took
place between Sir Morell Mackenzie, Professor von
Schrotter, Dr. Krause and Dr. Moritz Schmidt, who
was sent by the Emperor, destroyed the last vestige of
hope. Cancer had the royal victim in its grip. As a
result of the consultation the Crown Prince was given
the choice of total removal of the larynx or the palliative
operation of tracheotomy.1 He decided in favour of the
lattefy Two days later the Crown Princess wrote to her
mother :

I should have written before, but I was really so worried and
tormented that it would have been a confused letter. Many thanks
for your two dear telegrams! Any little line from you — by letter
or telegraph — is a comfort to me now. . . .

The doctors have arrived and consulted. They read to me their
Protocol — cruel indeed it sounded. I hardly expected much else,
still when the crude facts of one's doom are read to one, it gives
one an awful blow! I would not break down before them of course.
It will be sent to you and to the Emperor. My darling has got a
fate before him which I hardly dare think of! How I shall ever
have strength to bear it I do not know! ! (In confidence I must tell
you that Dr. Prof. Schrotter impressed me most unpleasantly. I
thought him rough, uncouth and arrogant ; perhaps he did not
show to advantage before me.) I cannot enough repeat how wise,
and kind, how delicate and considerate and judicious Sir M.
Mackenzie is — such a real comfort and support — and always calm

1 The Autobiography of Sir Felix Semon, p. 156.
252

SAN REMO

and collected — also Dr. Hovell ; I should not have known what 1887
to do without them.

I will write more tomorrow — for to-day let me end I William
has just arrived, not by our wish, and just at present is rather in
the way.

To this letter the Crown Princess added the post-
script :

I hope and trust and believe that the dread hour will be put off
for many months, if not for years, for more I know I dare not hope.

The following day, November 10, the British Military
Attache in Berlin, Colonel Leopold Swaine, wrote to
Queen Victoria's Secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby, from
Berlin :

This news of the Crown Prince is too dreadful, and we are
giving up all hopes of his recovery.

In addition also comes the rumour that the Empress is far from
well and court officials whisper that Her Majesty is sinking. But I
have been unable to obtain reliable information on that head.

It appears that the Emperor, though still weak, is recovering,
and is by no means as depressed at the news from San Remo as we
all are. He views the situation far more hopefully.

I look with sad forebodings into the future if the Crown Prince
is taken from us. As you know I have the greatest admiration for
Prince William*s abilities, but I think His Royal Highness's best
friends will admit that he is still too inexperienced and could hardly
expect to possess the full confidence, as his father naturally would
have, of those older German Princes, like the King of Saxony and
the Regent of Bavaria.

The Emperor cannot last much longer, and Prince Bismarck,
continually ailing, is also an old man. As long as the latter's life is
spared, Prince William would fully adhere to his counsels. But he
also gone, would leave the young Prince face to face with the task
of selecting a Chancellor for the Empire. Might not such a question
at any moment place him in opposition to the more experienced
heads of the German Kingdoms and Principalities that make up the
Union ? It is a very anxious moment.

253

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 On the following day, November 11, the Crown
Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

Sir Morel! Mackenzie tells me he has written to you, so I will
only add a few lines. You do not know what we have been
through!! The anxiety about Fritz was so great at Berlin that
they again resolved on that awful operation and it is to Sir Morell
Mackenzie alone, and to his quiet, clever, wise management, that
we owe it to have escaped being dragged to Berlin and having this
forced upon us! Please do not let this out, except to some of the
family! I hope you will see Sir Morell when you are back at
Windsor and let him tell you all that passed! Fritz is quite happy
and hopeful and the depression and anxiety has gone off, but oh 1
what it is to me, I cannot say. Yet I cannot and will not give up
hope. Mistakes of the strangest kind are made and the evil may
be arrested, or may cease to grow, etc., for a time, or even for
good, though I know it is not likely. I must do Prof. Schrotter
the justice to say that he performed the very difficult and delicate
task of imparting to my poor darling the result of the consultation
very well indeed! To say the truth I do not think Fritz realised
the whole meaning of what he said. He spoke of the operations
that could be performed and might be proposed, but neither urged
nor advised them! The others all agreed and have left. We have
only kept Krause. I was in an agony of terror this morning for
fear these gentlemen might put their opinion in too plain language
and give Fritz a terrible shock, so I remained in the room, but it
all passed off well. I hope now we shall have a little calm and be
left in peace and be able to nurse our dear patient as is best for
him, undisturbed. I hope the excitement will subside, and we shall
be less tormented with letters and telegrams which come pouring
in. But the load of dread and anxiety which is upon me will
remain — it is almost unbearable.

On the following day, November 12, 1887, the Ger-
man Official Gazette announced in an unsigned bulletin
that " the disease is due to the existence of a malignant
new growth "? which was of a " carcinomatous " char-
acter.1 The next day the Emperor summoned Bergmann,

1 Sir Rennell Rodd's Social and Diplomatic Memories, vol. i.

P* 123-
254

SAN REMO

Gerhardt, Tobold, Schrotter, Lenthold, Moritz Schmidt, 1887
Krause and Landgraf to Berlin to answer two questions.
To the first, as to whether, in spite of the Crown Prince's
refusal, the radical operation of the removal of the larynx
should be advised, they replied that the patient's will must
be decisive in view of the danger of the operation, and
that no further attempt should be made to persuade him.
To the second, as to why, when the operation had been
abandoned in May and June, it was suggested again at so
late a date, they replied that " the responsibility for its
non-performance until too late had been incurred by that
physician who had overlooked, nay, even denied, the
increase of the growth ",1 The consultation resulted in
the opinion being unanimously arrived at that the life of
the Crown Prince would best be prolonged by no attempt
being made whatsoever to remove either the whole or
the affected portion of the larynx. After considering this
report, the Crown Prince himself decided that the opera-
tion should not be performed. The following day the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria (November 13,
1887) :

. . . Tomorrow morning Sir Morell Mackenzie goes, and I
shall feel like a ship cut adrift from her anchor! However, happily
Dr. Krause, whom I like, and who seems very nice, is going to
stay. Sir Morell must come back after a while. We hear there is a
perfect storm of excitement and criticism raging at Berlin. It is
very unfair and unjust! You will hear a great deal from Sir Morell
when he gets back, though his news will have become rather stale
by the time you return from Scotland; still, you will hear what
we have been through.

Fritz has slept well, and eats well, and feels comfortable. We
must pray that he may remain so as long as possible. The sickening

1 The Autobiography of Sir Felix Semon, pp. 157-158. Also
the Standard, November 14, 1887.

255

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 dread of what his sufferings may be drives me quite wild at times;
and then I hope and trust there may be no suffering.

The weather is splendid, and I hope he will be allowed out
again soon, as he enjoys walking and driving so much.

All the world was now interested in the unusual event
of an Emperor and his heir-apparent both on the threshold
of death. The Emperor, William L, was already declining
slowly — his son in the grip of a mortal disease : the
agonising race with death had begun. The German press
was beside itself. The conclusion was speedily reached
that the life of the Crown Prince would be sacrificed
because of the mistake of a doctor — an English doctor —
who had, they asserted, been called in by the Crown
Princess. German doctors, who had been correct in their
diagnosis, had been deliberately set aside in favour of an
incompetent foreigner! Prince William was not slow to
reflect Berlin opinion, and arrived at San Remo with
Dr. Schmidt to make his own inquiries. On November
15 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

My darling Fritz is going on very nicely as regards the temporary
swelling and inflammation of the throat (Oedema). This has nearly
disappeared — he is no longer obliged to suck ice all day, and to have
ice bandages (ice bags) tied round his neck day and night, and
to sleep in his dressing room. But he is not allowed downstairs —
not out of doors yet. I have meals alone with him, and sit in his
room all day when I am not out walking. He is very cheerful and
quite comfortable, busies himself with reading and writing a great
deal and sleeps very well. He has promised he will not read about
himself in the newspaper and he has kept his promise.

The violent and shameful attacks upon poor Sir Morell Mac-
kenzie in the German press and Berlin public make us very indig-
nant j they are as unjust as they are hasty. We feel so very grate-
ful to him that it pains us doubly.

You ask how Willy was when he was here I He was as rude,
as disagreeable and as impertinent to me as possible when he
arrived, but I pitched into him with, I am afraid, considerable

256

SANREMO

violence, and he became quite nice and gentle and amiable (for 1887
him) — at least quite natural, and we got on very well! He began
with saying he would not go out walking with me " because he
was too busy — he had to speak to the doctors ". I said the doctors
had to report to me and not to him, upon which he said he had
the "Emperor's orders" to insist upon the right thing, to see that
the doctors were not interfered with, and to report to the Emperor
about his Papa! I said it was not necessary, as we always reported
to the Emperor ourselves. He spoke before others and half turning
his back to me, so I said I would go and tell his father how he
behaved and ask that he should be forbidden the house — and
walked away. Upon which he sent Ct. Radolinsky flying after me,
to say he had not meant to be rude and begged me to say nothing
to Fritz, " but that it was his duty to see that the Emperor's
commands were carried out ". I instantly saia I had no malice,
but I would suffer no interference. So it all went on quite smoothly
and we had many a pleasant little walk and chat together. He was
also quite nice to Sir Morell, etc. . . . William came with the
intention of insisting on this terrible operation being performed
and therefore brought Dr. Schmidt without our knowledge, as it
was feared the other doctors would not urge it, and Schmidt was
brought to press it on them, and to carry us off to Berlin for that
purpose I It would simply have assassinated Fritz. William is of
course much too young and inexperienced to understand all this!
He was merely put up to it at Berlin! He thought he was to save
his Papa from my mismanagement!! When he has not his head
stuffed with rubbish at Berlin he is quite nice and trdtatte, and
then we are very pleased to have him ; but I will not have him
dictate to me — the head on my shoulders is every bit as good as
his. If it were not I should be the first to give in to him. . . .

Now good-bye, dearest beloved Mama — if you do write to
Fritz, I hope you will do so as cheerfully as you can! Letters in
a melancholy tone such as he does receive a good many — depress
him. He hates being thought very ill, or appearing so!

The tension between mother and son did not tend to

lessen as time went on ; nor was the Crown Princess

overpleased with the sending of Dr. Bramann (Professor

Bergmann's assistant) to San Remo to perform the opera-

s 257

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 tion of tracheotomy if this should suddenly become neces-
sary. On November 16 she wrote to Queen Victoria :

Though I wrote this morning, yet I must send a few more
lines tonight to thank you for your dear letter of the i2th which
I have just received. All your dear kind words touch and cheer
me so much, and your love is a true comfort and support! I
cannot say how grateful I am for it. Fritz sends you his best love
and thanks for all your sympathy, . . .

William's telegram is too foolish! He told me he had sent it
and I said "How could you!!" It is too impudent! Just like
him! He never reflects. He had heard that very morning that
Miinster had advised us not to send everything en ctatr, as it
was all read, so William thought he would give them a piece of
his mind and was rather proud of this telegram of his, as a bright
idea! I failed to see it in that light!!

We have had fresh annoyance from Berlin today: Count
Stollberg telegraphs that the Emperor has sent a surgeon here,
Bergmann's assistant, with orders to stay near us! We had twice
protested and declined, and said that if a surgeon were neces-
sary we should let Bergmann know! In spite of all this, they
force this person on us! They do tease and torment us, and the
press goes on quarrelling and fighting about Fritz! Political ques-
tions and national feelings and prejudices get mixed up with all
this, so that one gets driven nearly wild! But the sincere sympathy
we meet with from so many many sides is most touching, and we
are deeply grateful for it.

To this letter Queen Victoria replied on November 18 :

You have every reason to feel angry and annoyed at the excite-
ment and shameful publicity and disgraceful arguments respecting
our beloved Fritz's illness. But on the other hand some allowance
must be made for the fearful anxiety of the nation about their
beloved, noble and heroic Prince.

I will certainly see Sir M. Mackenzie on my return at once and
will hear everything. I hope, however, that dear Fritz knows the
alternatives and that it is he who has decided not to have the opera-
tion ? for else the responsibility of others in positively deciding
against it would be fearful. The German Surgeons and many, I
believe, in England, do not consider that operation so dangerous

258

SAN REMO

and there are many instances of its success, for in that way the 1887
disease can be really eradicated. Some people also think that Sir
M. Mackenzie's judgment is not quite equal to his great skill in
the internal operation. I only feel it my duty out of love for you
both to say openly what strikes me, for the importance and value
of beloved Fritz's precious life is such that one must overlook
nothing. Of course I am still greatly in the dark as to the exact
state of everything and therefore only write this to you as I know
you would wish me to be quite open.

This letter crossed one from the Crown Princess
written that same day, in which she had poured out all
her fears and hopes to her mother :

I received your dear letter of the i4th yesterday evening! So
many most affectionate thanks for it! But I should reproach myself
if you tired yourself, or gave up too much of your precious time by
writing to me, so please do not write oftener on my account than
usual. I know how your time is taken up, and though you know
what a comfort and pleasure your dear letters are, still I should
fidget very much if you wrote more than is convenient to you
in any way! Our dear patient continues to do very well! The
interference, the attacks, the advice continue to pour down upon
us from Berlin, i.e, upon me, because we trouble Fritz as little as
we can! The newspapers are filled with absolute lies and yet one
does not know whether it be wise or advisable to contradict them!
They are for the most part very spiteful innuendoes. You know
there is a party who have their representatives at this moment
even at our court, who no doubt from good motives, but with a
deplorable lack of common sense and knowledge of medical affairs,
insist that I am at the bottom of all the mischief— prevented the
operation in May, forced Sir M. Mackenzie on Fritz, and have kept
everyone else away! They also say that this horrible operation
would kill or cure Fritz and that I have prevented both the chances!
They dread a war or European complications. They think William
would be better than an Emperor suffering from an incurable
malady, they also perhaps think they can get rid of me, which
they would be glad of, as they find tie Emperor and William far
better tools. This is so grossly ignorant and false and ridiculous

259

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 that it is hardly worth fighting. The trouble is that as long as
there is breath in me, I shall see that the right thing is done for
Fritz for the prolongation of his life, for his comfort and happiness.
They are (many of them) angry with me for appearing cheerful
and unconcerned before Fritz and for trying to make the time
pass pleasantly and keep his mind free from care and from dwelling
on painful things! They say I try to hide the gravity of the situa-
tion from him, that he ought to feel more what danger he is in.
This is not at all true, as he is in no danger of any immediate
kind now, thank God! They say that I buoy him up with false
hopes, which is also not true, as I carefully avoid speaking of the
future in order not to be obliged to say what I do not think!
When first Sir Morell told him in the gentlest, kindest way that
he was afraid the growth might be a malignant one, it depressed
Fritz so frightfully that he shed the bitterest tears and had a heart-
breaking outburst of grief! " To think that I should have such a
horrid, disgusting illness! that I shall be an object of disgust to
everyone, and a burden to you all ! I had so hoped to be of use to
my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me! What have I done to
be thus stricken down and condemned! What will become of you?
I have nothing to leave you! Who will fight Moretta's battles ? "
But I did all I could to console and pacify him, and tell him all
I could think of which was comforting and reassuring, though
consistent with the truth! I said we must leave the future in
God's hands and not trouble about it, but fight this illness as
well as we can, by remaining cheerful and hopeful, taking care of
health, etc.

He was quite relieved and comforted and what the other
doctors afterwards said to him made no impression! He listened
quite calmly to them, but he did not realise exactly what they meant!
This, of course, is only known to very few people, Sir Morell, Dr.
Hovell and Moretta! Nor must it be known, or the others would
lose no opportunity of saying " Oh, you are much worse than
you know. Your wife is concealing it from you. There is no
hope for you anywhere, you had better resign all hopes of
succeeding your father. You should have gone back to Berlin
and submitted to the operation." Even good and well-meaning
people have not le tact du cceur and would not try to save a person
one moment's agony or distress of mind. You know how sensitive
and apprehensive, how suspicious and despondent Fritz is by
260

SAN REMO

nature! All the more wrong and positively dangerous (let alone 1887
the cruelty of it) to wish him to think the worst! We should not
keep him going at all, if this were the case. Some of his friends
think there is something grand in making the worst of everything,
the biggest fuss they can, and among the letters and telegrams he
gets (in spite of my trying to keep them away from him) are most
injudicious, regular funeral orations. This keeps me in a continual
fear, as it is really too bad to have him tormented and upset, instead
of encouraged and supported, and it makes my task very difficult,
as you can imagine! The publicity with which all our affairs have
been treated at Berlin, is very painful, and the indiscretion and
want of delicacy are very offensive to our feelings. This I am sure
you will understand and feel with me! ...

How long it may please God to leave our darling with us we
know not, but this thought, though it embitters every minute of my
existence, shall not cast more gloom over him than I can help ! Even
in uncertainty there is an element of hope. Small as it is, it is enough
to be held out to him in a vague way, which cheers and comforts
him and makes him willing to do what the doctors wish, which he
would not do, if he were convinced that it was all no use! I have
written you these details, as I thought you would wish to know.

I am so thankful we are not in Berlin, where they would half
kill us with interference, where they quite lose their heads with
excitement.

I do not know, but I think Prince Bismarck would be on our
side. The Emperor is marvellously well again, the Empress I
hear very conflicting accounts about, so that I really do not quite
know. . . .

The continued absence of the Crown Prince from
Berlin was now being resented by certain elements in
the German court, and the fears of the Princess seemed
to be justified when on November 17 the Emperor dele-
gated his authority to Prince William in the event of his
illness. Four days later the Empress's second son, Prince
Henry, had arrived at San Remo, and the distress occa-
sioned by his visit may be gauged from the following
letter from the Crown Princess written on November 21 :

261

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 At Berlin they had done what is exceedingly wrong. The
Emperor has appointed William to sign all the state papers in his
stead, whenever the Emperor feels unable! To do this without
asking Fritz, or consulting him, is an irregular proceeding and
exceedingly rucksichtslos. Two days ago a notification of this
fact arrived, signed by Bismarck, not even in his hand ! As Fritz
was on that day much excited and annoyed by an assistant of
Bergmann's being sent here by the Emperor's orders — without
Fritz's wishes and against my written and telegraphic protest,
the doctor wished him not to be worried, so I put by this paper
and did not give it him! Henry arrives, pulls a paper, or rather a
letter, from Willy out of his pocket, in which letter it says that he
has been appointed as Stellvertreter des Kaisers, and gives it to
Fritz, who was much upset, very angry, and much excited, talked
a great deal (which is very bad for him) and said he would go
instantly to Berlin, etc. ... and took a long while to calm and
pacify.

Now I must tell you that the court, military and government
people are so mad and foolish at Berlin that they imagine Fritz's
illness to be in far more advanced a stage than it really is! I may
also say their wish is father to the thought! They think that
as the Crown Prince is given up, the quicker another takes his
place the better for the state (and for them). They think that I,
Sir Morell and Dr. Hovell, and Dr. Krause take care of our patient,
and think only of him, his welfare, and of prolonging and if possible
saving his precious life ; which of course they (the Party) think
utterly impossible and ridiculous. They know that Sir Morell,
Dr. Hovell and Dr. Krause are perfectly independent, are not state
employe's of the German Government, and will take no orders from
Berlin, but are simply guided by their duty towards their patient!
The Party consequently wish to get rid of them, and are only
too glad to avail themselves of the shameful and disgusting polemic
in the press, which they even favour and encourage! The Party
think that if they could only get rid of me, they would then send
Fritz's doctors away and put people of their own choosing, whom
they could direct, about Fritz, whose duty, they calmly say, it
would be to make Fritz see that his case is hopeless, and that it
is his duty to resign his claim to the Throne, the sooner the better.
This plot is being worked — and Fritz guesses it — and is very
suspicious. All worry is so very bad! The sympathy in Germany
262

SAN REMO

is so very great and the affection for him so strong, but the con- 1887
sternation is also very great. People have heard that Fritz knows
the worst — that he has accepted it with stoicism, and therefore
they think he must be going to die immediately and are astonished
that he does not return. Others again think if the Emperor were
to be either taken, or so ill that he could not do any business, the
Crown Prince must be past doing business, so Prince William
must take his place 1 This latter opinion was expressed by Henry
this afternoon to me in, I am sorry to say, a most unbecoming
manner. I am not angry with the boy, because he is ignorant,
green and misled, and does not understand, but he preached to
me as if I were a little girl! He is devoted to his Papa — and thinks
everyone in office at Berlin must be right! All these torments are
rather hard for me to bear, with all the anxiety gnawing at my
heart night and day ! I think they will calm down at Berlin and
come to their senses. . . .

Thank God dear Fritz feels well and comfortable today, worry
and annoyance excepted. He sends you his tenderest love.

Of the future [she added in a postscript] I have not dared to
think today. I leave it in God's hands, and do not desire to
know what is coming. . . .

Other letters from the Crown Princess to her mother
during the remaining six weeks of the year 1887 are
mostly in this strain. In the main they give news of the
fluctuations of the Crown Prince's illness — one day she
would be buoyed up by hope, and the next utterly
depressed. She resisted strenuously efforts to replace
Mackenzie, Hovell and Krause by other doctors. The
continued criticism in the German press worried her con-
siderably, as did the thoughtless and often provocative
actions of her sons, Prince William and Prince Henry.
" Henry ", she wrote on November 29, " maintains that
his Papa is lost through the English doctors and me. . . .
He becomes so rude and impertinent that I really cannot
stand it." l On December 2 she again wrote :

1 Prince Henry was then twenty-five years old.

263

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 It is hard enough to hear myself abused, everything found
wrong that is done for Fritz — the doctors, who are acting so wisely
and conscientiously, torn to pieces by ignorant excited people —
but it is harder far to see one's own children side violently with
these people and refuse to hear or believe a word one says. Henry
is quite dreadful in this respect!! He is so prejudiced, and fancies
he knows far better than his Mama and all the doctors here, and
that we do not speak the truth. It makes me feel so bitter at times.
However, I think that when we have been here longer, he will
perhaps be brought to see things in their true light. He is as
obstinate as a mule.

You cannot think how much perfidy has been used in mis-
representing things to the German public, to excite them against
Sir Morell Mackenzie, against me, against Dr. Krause and Dr.
Hovell. . . . On this ground the political intrigues have grown.
General von Winterfeld, who had been the greatest support and
comfort at Baveno, instantly gave everything up, lost his head,
and took upon himself to stir up the whole court and military
party at Berlin. He persisted in telegraphing the most alarming
things, and created the scare at Berlin, which was kept up and
increased by the violence of General v. Albedyll and his friends,
who were of course terrified, and thought Fritz would be taken
from us in a few months and kept bombarding us with orders to
do things we could not do. Winterfeld and all the Party at Berlin
wanted to pack us up instantly and go back, — put Fritz into the
hands of Gerhardt, Bergmann and Tobold and force the operation
on us! I need hardly say that the journey would have prevented
the acute inflammation from going down and that in all probability
the operation would have cost Fritz his life.

Against this it was my duty to fight! Now the same Party will
not see and refuse to admit that Fritz is doing relatively well.
They had based all their calculations on his not succeeding his
father, or on his being obliged to institute a Regency immediately,
which would put all the power in William's hands. They are
making their arrangements accordingly and I have as yet no
knowledge of what Bismarck's attitude is — whether he believes
the Party and goes with them, or not! This is the truth of the
position we are placed in. They mean it patriotically and for what
they consider the good of the country, but it is really foolish and
wrong, wicked and cruel, and certainly not in accordance with
264

SAN REMO

what the German nation feel, who daily give fresh proofs of 1887
affection and confidence, sympathy and loyal devotion.

I must bear with all this injustice, ingratitude and folly for a
time. The future will show who was right.

It was during her visit to the Crown Princess that
Lady Ponsonby, one of her most valued friends, wrote
to her husband, Sir Henry Ponsonby, on December 3,
1887, a letter that sheds an interesting light upon the
social conditions which obtained at the Villa Zirio :

Just returned from dining at the Villa Zirio with the Crown
Prince and Princess and seventeen at dinner. We were — let me see
— Bruhl, Perpignan and four princesses, self and Maggie and Mile.
de B., the governess, made nine women ; Crown Prince, Prince
Henry, his equerry Seckendorff, Von Rabe (a mysterious man in
spectacles), our Seckendorff, and a small dark English doctor were
the party. I sat next the Crown Prince, who looked beautiful, with
a fresh colour and a good appetite, and whom I had the greatest
difficulty to prevent talking. . . .

I have just had a long visit from Baron Roggenbach, an old
friend of the Prince and Stockmar, and one of the few people the
Crown Princess really trusts. He says he was almost the first to be
alarmed about the Crown Prince and told me the history of the
case from the beginning. Whatever his opinion is of Mackenzie
at home^ and it does not seem to be favourable, he thinks he has
behaved honourably and straightforwardly here. He quite agrees
with him that the operation at any time was out of the question
whether the evil were cancer or no, so that he (M. M.) was justified
in saying, so far as evidence went at first, there was nothing to
prove it to be malignant. He never disguised from the Crown
Prince it might become so. R. told me a great deal more, but post
is going. Crown Princess here for a little and took Maggie with
her and Princess Victoria. We dine there tonight.

Must just add that I think Roggenbach quite the most shrewd
German I have seen with them. At this moment he says it is a case
of surprise, general health and colour excellent and each day better.
At all events, the mischief is not progressing, tell Jenner.1

1 Mary Ponsonby, pp. 259-261.

265

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 Bismarck's attitude during this period was one of
sympathetic interest, and the Princess wrote with pleasure
on December 8 of " a civil and pleasant letter " she had
received from him : l

Henry [she continued] is quite nice and amiable now, but I
have never returned to the subject of his papa's illness, or the
doctors, or the way which people went on at Berlin, as I cannot
be spoken to in such a way again! In all other respects he has
now calmed down considerably, and makes himself agreeable. He
is always nice when he has been with us some time, but not when
he has been set up by others, and his head stuffed full of rubbish
at Berlin. . . .

Six days later Lady Ponsonby wrote to Queen
Victoria :

. . . The Princess told me yesterday that the fact of a fresh
small growth having appeared on the vocal cord has been made
known to Your Majesty, also that it has been decided to call Sir M.
Mackenzie again in consultation.2 This has been a source of trouble
and anxious thought, not so much that this appearance makes the
doctors fear the existence of cancer more than they have lately done.
It is to be regretted, of course, as the expectation of another consult-
ation so soon depresses the Prince, and many similar operations
will have necessarily a lowering effect, but the great question of all,
what exact form of throat disease is the Crown Prince suffering
from, remains unanswered as yet, and this growth (precisely the same
in character as that which Sir M. Mackenzie operated upon before)
does not in any way prove one thing or the other. But this return

1 Busch, p. 2325 records that among the Chancellor's letters
there was a long one dated November 22, 1887, from the Crown
Princess, " giving the Chancellor particulars of her consort's illness
and of the doctors ; and also Bodelschwingh's communication, on
the top of which the chief had written in pencil * Old hypocrite V

2 Apparently the Crown Princess ignored the reports published
in the German Official Gazette that the new growth was of a carci-
nomatous character.

266

SAN REMO

of the milder form of illness makes a complication in the Princess's 1887
position which it is difficult to decide how to meet. With the exist-
ing jealousy on the part of the German doctors it may not be wise
to call in the English doctor alone. If, on the other hand, the con-
sultation takes in two or three and four doctors, a panic will arise
and all the peace which has lately prevailed will be at an end. Be-
sides Princess Charlotte and her husband are expected here shortly.
It is difficult to decide whether this prospect of another consultation
should be told them or not. In talking over it with the Princess I
submitted that in my humble judgment it would be better to hide
nothing. The doctors cannot come here without comment from
the press and public. If the Prince and Princess arrive expecting to
find the Crown Prince as well as the accounts of the last fortnight
have made him out (most truly) to be, but instead of that find him
shut up in his room, as he must be for the moment, it will strengthen
the impression (which I believe the son-in-law shares with Prince
William) that the real truth is kept from the relations and from the
public, and it would only add to the mass of deplorable misrepre-
sentation under which the dear Crown Princess suffers. I think the
Crown Princess has decided that at this very moment only Your
Majesty shall be told, but I told Count Seckendorff of my fears, and
he said the Princess thought as I did and would make this relapse
(it is almost too strong a word) known a little later and before the
Prince and Princess arrive.

We dined last night at Villa Zirio and I begged not to sit next
the Crown Prince. He is so very very kind and cordial and it is
almost impossible to prevent his speaking. If one tries to avoid this
by talking oneself, then he will answer. If one is silent, then he will
begin the conversation, so I sorrowfully relinquished my place, and
Baron Roggenbach being gone (with whom he had long conversa-
tions) I think the Prince was persuaded to be more silent and played
at billiards instead of talking.

The Crown Princess has had a headache and slight cold and
naturally her spirits vary according to the state of affairs. It is
perfectly insufferable that she cannot do the simplest thing without
its being known at once in Berlin. I daresay H.L Highness told
Your Majesty of the telegram en clair she sent to the Duchess of
Montpensier, upon which the Crown Princess receives a message
from Berlin before the answer arrives, to say it is wished H.L
Highness should not meet the Orleans family! It must have

267

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 happened that the information came from someone at Villa Zirio,
This is the saddest part of the dear Crown Princess's position. There
is not une dme qui vive to whom she can speak openly (I am speak-
ing of the ladies). If she does it is always taken with a twist, with
suspicion, misrepresented, exaggerated and turned against her.
Mdlle. de Perpignan is far and away the kindest and most just
person, and the Crown Princess seems to have quite forgiven their
little differences. HI. Highness told me Count R. had shown
which way the wind blew when he said things are so altered that
now it does not signify there should be anyone (Ct. Seckendorff)
independent of the Government with influence in the Crown
Prince's Household. In the meantime they sat next each other at
dinner last night, which amused me, and they speak (which I think
does both credit) though they never can be friends. Whatever
faults (and I perfectly see them) Count S. may have, there can be
no manner of doubt that the advice he gives the Crown Princess is
always sensible, honest, open and fearless. Situated as she is, I can-
not but think these are great merits. Princess Victoria is a great
comfort to her mother and has, I think, a great deal of character.
The Crown Princess is, however, very very lonely and it makes
me wretched sometimes to think of it. . . .

Lady Ponsonby's reference to the Crown Princess's
relations with the Duchess of Montpensier bore allusion
to another cause of tension between the Crown Princess
and those in power at Berlin. The Crown Princess had
always been on friendly terms with the Orleans family,
and hearing that the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier
were at Cannes (where the Crown Princess's brother
Leopold had died in 1884), decided either to pay them a
short visit there or to invite them to San Remo. The
moment the news of this project reached Berlin, Bismarck
promptly forbade such an exchange of civilities, and on
January 22 the Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria :

Fancy that I am forbidden to go and see the Duke and Duchess
of Montpensier and Marguerite and Chignite, or to ask them here.
They all so very kindly asked to come here to see us!! It makes
268

SAN REMO

me furious to have to find excuses and appear so rude when I am 1887
so anxious to see them all ! Therefore I cannot go to Cannes, and
yet am so anxious to see the house in which our dear Leopold
breathed his last, and the Church erected to his memory! It is
really too bad and so ridiculous; besides I wish they all knew that
it is no fault of ours. It is Bismarck's newest fad. I am quite at a
loss to see what possible harm it could do anyone, or anything, if
I saw our relations and friends who are always so kind and civil
and agreeable. It seems to me so kleinlich. I suppose that the idea
is the French Government are not to imagine that Germany has the
faintest sympathy for the Orleans family or their cause — on the
contrary hopes they will not return to the Throne ! Prince Bismarck
is convinced that they are a great danger to peace and to Germany,
which I do not and cannot believe 1 He thinks if they returned to
power, Russia would instantly make an alliance with them and
begin war upon Germany, whereas the Czar's dislike to a Republic
restrains him from allying himself with France at this moment.
I fail to see that this Republic is a safeguard at all.

It was while Lady Ponsonby was still at San Remo
that she wrote to her husband, Sir Henry Ponsonby, in
December 1887 :

... I declare I think the unfairness about the Crown Princess
is unbearable. The German press all adopt the tone that the real
truth is kept back, and if she quotes Dr. Krause (the German doctor
here who works with Hovell) they say that he has been won over.
Bismarck (the old one) and the Emperor and Empress are kind,
which helps her. The Crown Prince trusts implicitly in her, so
that is a great compensation, but the hochements de tete of the
children, Henry and the little ones, and the visage d'wenement of
Bruhl irritate me. I don't think M. Mackenzie has entered into
all the details with Reid. Hovell gave me a long detailed account
which with Roggenbach's and the Crown Princess's I have written
out while I remember it all.

The Queen's letter is very interesting. I think she has been
envenimee against M. Mackenzie by Uncle,1 who is in charge of his
nephew William, and thinks and says the English doctor is only

1 Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

269

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1887 trying to feather his nest. Yesterday was the first day she, the Crown
Princess, broke down before me. She is generally in apparent excel-
lent spirits, though preoccupied at times ; but yesterday it was too
much to find him reading a recapitulation of the doctors' former
opinion with a paragraph pointing out the difference between this
and the present bulletins and leaving their readers to make their
own inference. The poor Crown Prince turned to her and said,
" Why will they take every ray of hope away ? What good is done
them by this ? " and pointed to the paragraph. She was quite
cheerful to him and then came into the next room where I was and
cried. She is so wonderful generally that it fills one with pity. The
Crown Prince was full of chaff last night, taking off Maggie, de-
lighted with the thought of the children's enjoyment of the Christ-
mas tree. . . .1

The Christmas of 1887 passed with the usual inter-
change of cordial wishes between the Crown Princess
and her mother, and her last letter to Queen Victoria in
1887 bore testimony to the ever-widening gulf between
the Princess and her son William. On December 28 she
wrote :

So many affectionate thanks for your dear letter written on
Christmas Eve. This will be my last letter in the Old Year, your
Jubilee Year, never to be forgotten, which has brought much
happiness, also much anxiety. It is not without the usual uncertainty
that the New Year begins — but still I am full of hope, as Sir Morell
Mackenzie is even more satisfied this time than he was before,
and more reassured about the appearance of Fritz's throat than a
week ago. You will hear from him all he thinks, so much better
than I can put it, that I leave the details to him. His visit has been
most useful and a great comfort.

Dear Mary Ponsonby has left today — how much I shall miss
her, and how thankful I was to have her here for a little. She, too,
can tell you much more than I could write. . . .

I am rather amused at the Times correspondent at Berlin saying
that the " Mission " at Berlin is for the development of Evan-
gelistic Church life and Christian charity. It is by no means a

1 Mary Ponsonby, pp. 264-265,
270

SAN REMO

harmless thing; the people that belong to it are the most violent 1887
enemies to all my charitable undertakings (I have always avoided
the violent Sectarians, Anti-Jews, and Anti-Catholics, thinking
them intolerant and uncharitable). William, and more especially
Dona, have always favoured the opposite "Clique" — who
are all violent Bismarckists, Conservatives, etc. Therefore when
this meeting was held, at which Dona and William were pre-
sent and the latter made a very foolish speech, I was in no
ways astonished; it created great indignation, however, in the
Liberal and Bourgeois world at Berlin, and has made William still
more unpopular than he already was, with- the mass of the popu-
lation. We said nothing to him about it, not thinking it worth
while. He must buy his own experience, as he does not listen to
us. The people who for almost 30 years have been nasty to Fritz
and especially to me, are the very same who run after William,
who have him quite in their pocket and Dona also, the same
people or clique as used to persecute my parents-in-law, as long
as they were Prince and Princess of Prussia, and who only became
such devoted admirers of the Emperor since he dropped all his
old principles and all his old friends, and took Bismarck in 1863,
and the retrograde era began. Their hope, their wish is that
William shall continue the style of Government they are so sadly
afraid will be modified if Fritz ever is Emperor. William knows
all this! The Court-Clergy at Berlin are most pernicious elements,
false, ambitious, narrow-minded and servile, much disliked by the
educated and independent middle class. It is sad that the children
should not take their parents' sidel Fritz and I stuck loyally and
faithfully to all the Emperor's old friends, Schleinitz, Usedom,
Hatzfeldt, Pourtales, Arnim, Camphausen, Bonin, Prince Hohen-
lohe — all such excellent, high principled men, tolerant, cour-
teous, cosmopolitan!! Bismarck swept them all away and then the
rule of " blood and iron " — the principle of " opportunism " was
inaugurated and we withdrew into silence and reserve. We could
not approve of all that was done, but people who tried to do the
Emperor and Empress harm, or who criticised them with dis-
respect, we should never have taken up!! Much will change if
we ever have a chance of putting straight and conciliating. The
Emperor's great age accounts in a great measure for all this Party
strife! But I must not bore you with these things, which can
only be of secondary interest to you.

271

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 The new year brought little joy to the Crown Prin-
cess. It had barely begun before the discovery was made
that the right side of the larynx was attacked by the
growth. On January 5 the Princess wrote to her mother :

Fritz is a little hoarser these last few days, and the right side
(which was not attacked till now) shows signs of congestion and
a little swelling. It is very tiresome, not but what we must expect
the like in a state of chronic affection as his is. Still I had hoped
we should have escaped it! I have told Dr. Hovell to write to
Dr. Reid about it!

Fritz's illness has made everyone feel what a blessed thing it would
be if this regime of Bismarck's omnipotence were not to last for
ever, if other motives and sentiments and another spirit were to
pervade the German Government. B. is very great, a man of genius
and power, does his best and has done great things for his country.
One must be just and grateful, but as you cannot gather grapes
of thorns or figs from thistles, so can you not expect from him
that which modem Germany lacks and which it thirsts for, and
that is peace among its classes, races, religions and parties, good
and friendly relations with its neighbours, liberty and the respect
of right instead of force, and the protection of the weak against
the oppression of the strong. . . .

Three weeks later the Crown Princess wrote to Lady
Ponsonby (January 28) :

The Crown Prince has been feeling very seedy this last fort-
night, but it is only the consequence of the last attack, when he
had such a violent cough, and such fever and sleepless nights, —
all that has passed off, but has left him feeling out of sorts and
with headache and a little neuralgia. I hope it will soon pass off;
there are no new unfavourable symptoms in the throat! Tomorrow
Sir M. Mackenzie returns, and we are very anxious to hear what
he will have to say.

We have been much teased from Berlin and dear Count
Radolinsky wrote me two most violent letters, that I can only call
insane. I showed them to no one and burnt them and shall not
answer or take any notice! They were a heap of surmises — (on
the old subject) each one as false and fantastic as it could be!
272

SAN REMO

winding up with a series of dark threats!!! It is really terrible 1888
that he who means to be so loyal to us, should be so credulous, so
excitable, violent, imprudent and injudicious — one really does not
know how to deal with these wild mad words ! He was like a lamb
here, but when he gets back to his people he is more like a bull
in a china shop — and for no reason* We have also been having
great trouble with the press, etc. I am often quite exhausted with
trying to keep things straight, Us has me tombent, and I wish for
you back so much! —

Now to another subject. You know I have a great opinion of
Sir H, Layard's talents and knowledge and experience! I know
quite well all that is said against him, but also that his capacities
could be turned to good account! A man who at his age can
write two good books in one year has a deal of energy left. I
know the Queen has great prejudices against him; poor Odo used
to tell me to do what I could to smother these! Both parties, Tories
and Liberals, had grievances against him — still there was an idea
once of getting him into the House of Lords and giving him a
peerage. He could get into the House of Commons if he liked —
but the work is too hard for him at his age! Are no more peerages
to be given on account of the Jubilee ? Do ask your King Solomon
— I mean Sir Henry, — I do not like to write to the Queen — can
you not tell me whether something can be done ? What I am
saying is utterly unbeknown to old Sir Henry Layard — though
we have just seen him! I enclose a letter from Sir Wm. Gregory
on the same subject to a third person, who also takes great interest
in the idea.

I had a long and interesting talk with Lord Hartington yester-
day. He seems full of vigour and lucidity — which is a very good
thing. I was so much interested with Lord Chas. Beresford's, Lord
Brassey's and the Duke of Cambridge's speeches at that meeting
(in the Times I received today). Oh how I wish every penny were
rightly spent on our army and navy, and loth were as efficient as
POSSIBLE. We cannot do without!

Dearest Mary I must end here! My girls, especially Vicky,
send you and Maggie their best love! They say their Mama is
getting more and more absent , and they wonder whether Maggie's
Mama is in a brown study out walking, or loses her gloves and
pocket handkerchiefs, and puts her cap on crooked at dinner!!
and commits the like enormities! Can you tell me ?

T 273

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 January and February passed with the patient still at
San Remo, and his wife ever by his side. Almost every
week the illness fluctuated to such an extent as to cause
alternations of hope and despair in the Princess. She was,
however, pleased to note on January 8 that " the Emperor
spoke kindly about Morell Mackenzie, which I am also
glad of". Early in February, the disease now having
been diagnosed as perichondritis, it was decided to insert
a canula into the patient's throat, so as to render breathing
somewhat easier. On February 8 the Princess wrote to
Queen Victoria :

I am quite miserable that Fritz suffers so much from this
difficulty in breathing, and this horrid tracheotomy is pending :
Of course, I am very thankful that Virchow's report is as good as
it is. But I must say I feel a little as if we were " out of the frying
pan into the fire " as one cannot tell how long, nor how bad this
perichondritis will be, nor how Fritz's constitution will stand it.
His patience gets sorely tried and his spirits much depressed — it
is difficult to keep up his courage. He feels how necessary he is,
and is so anxious to be cured and to recover. The nights and
days and weeks wear one, and we cannot see our way out of the
wood yet. All this uncertainty is very hard to bear and one has
to put as good a face on it as one can.

To Lady Ponsonby she wrote on the same day :

... I am again very anxious and much tormented because
tracheotomy is pending, and you can imagine how I hate the
thought of this detestable operation, but if the difficulty of breath-
ing continues and even increases, what else can be done? It
makes me miserable, however, that my poor darling should have
all this to go through without one's being able to take it away
from him, which I gladly would.

As for the subterranean war in the household, I have heard
nothing lately. Count Radolinsky is a kind-hearted, amiable and
intelligent man, most devoted to us, but not judicious — violent,
credulous (like a baby), excitable, talks too much and is in conse-
quence often led and not by the best people. This makes it a
274

SAN REMO

danger, because he is most imprudent, though he means very well. 1888
His intentions now at Berlin are the best, and he only wishes to
keep the Emperor and the Chancellor in a good humour about
us and satisfied with the treatment the Crown Prince is under-
going. How much mischief may be made by the letters written
to him (Count Radolinsky) from here, I cannot tell, nor could I
prevent it. I simply ignore all these and listen to nothing. I wish
we were over this next month or two. . . ,1

Five days previously, on February 3, 1888, Bismarck,
for reasons of his own, published the text of a defensive
treaty against Russia which Germany and Austria had
concluded on October 7, 1879, and which had till then
been kept secret. On receipt of this piece of news the
Crown Princess wrote to Queen Victoria (February 9) :

I shall be anxious to hear what Lord Salisbury says to the
publication of this treaty of alliance between Germany and Austria.
It is all done in the interests of peace, I think.

That day, February 9, the long-deferred operation of
tracheotomy was performed successfully by Dr. Bramann,
and the Crown Princess again wrote to Queen Victoria :

This has been a very terrible day of anxiety and distress. Thank
God the operation was carried out well and all went straight —
dear Fritz is dozing and I am at his bedside. Of course, he cannot
speak! He breathes quite well now, but the sound of the air
through that canula is of course very horrid 1 He was only told
this morning that it was going to be done and gave his consent.
Bergmann was not waited for! Dr. Bramarm did it very well —
Sir Morell, Dr. Hovell, Krause and Schrader were there — next
door Moretta, Louis and I. I own I was in terror and agonies, as
you can imagine! I was infinitely relieved when it was over. Poor
dear, he was so good and patient and made no fuss; I did my
best to make none either. The arrangements had to be made in a
great hurry. His bed is in his sitting room. He felt no pain, I
think, as he was under chloroform. Henry and Charlotte were very

1 Mary Ponsonby, pp. 265-266.

375

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 nice to me today and Louis most kind. I am feeling much shaken
with all the anxiety and I trust all will do well now.

The news of the operation at once excited Berlin, and
the rumour quickly spread that the Crown Prince was
at the point of death, if not already dead! The Crown
Princess, however, still could not believe that the malady
was cancer, as will be seen from her letter to Queen
Victoria of February 12 :

Fritz has spent a good night. Yesterday evening Professor
Bergmann arrived and with him Ct. Radolinsky. The latter im-
mediately said that he had not expected to find Fritz alive, that
all Berlin was in the state of the wildest excitement and alarm.
That everyone knew it was cancer and only cancer and that Fritz
was irrevocably lost, and that at Berlin no one thought of reckoning
with him, he was already considered as belonging to the past!
This rubbish only shows you what is thought in the circles in
which Radolinsky moves. We have asked Sir Morell to put down
his views in a short statement, also to publish Virchow's last state-
ment, as everyone at Berlin and my three eldest children are still
firmly convinced that Virchow has pronounced it to be cancer
as the result of his investigation. Ctss. Bruhl almost cuts me,
Fritz's two gentlemen make the longest and stifTest faces. All this
means that they disbelieve all that is favourable and insist on
believing the most unfavourable! Bergmann (who can know
absolutely nothing about Fritz's throat except by hearsay) says it
is cancer. As he is the first Berlin Surgeon, of course, many of the
Germans believe him, as they cannot know or understand that he
has nothing but his conjectures to go by!

I had rather a stormy evening last night with all these dear
people, who really seem to lose their senses whenever there is extra
reason to be calm and collected, firm and judicious. They mean
very well, but are uncommonly troublesome to deal with.

The following weeks showed no great change, neither
in the condition of the patient nor in the hopes of his
wife that all would be well and that he would recover,
nor, indeed, in the temper of the Berlin party. On

276

SAN REMO

February 20 the Princess thought that " Fritz is really a 1888
little better today ... so I am comforted a little, and
think he is turning the corner and beginning to mend ".
Referring to the excitement in Berlin she added, " When
Fritz is really better, and the excitement and alarm sub-
sides, then all will be much easier. All the gossip at
Berlin and here is quite ridiculous. The main thing is
Fritz's health, and please God all these pessimistic views
are very unnecessary at present." To the " spiteful and
unkind opposition " she determined to turn the blind eye
" like Lord Nelson ... it is best not to see things which
are foolish and only intended to irritate one ".

A week later there was another consultation over
the patient. Mackenzie, Bergmann, Schroder and Prof.
Kussmaul of Strassburg were present, and a squabble
between their varying views was unfortunately unavoid-
able. On February 26 the Crown Princess wrote :

Today has been a very painful day for me! As I foresaw, they
only sent for poor old Professor Kussmaul from Strassburg to
endorse their opinion! He is not a specialist, and cannot see with
the laryngoscope one bit, but notwithstanding this, he tried to
make an examination of Fritz's throat, which was a very comical
proceeding I assure you! He saw nothing, but imagined he saw
a great deal and describes quite fantastically what he did see! The
principal result was this ! He declares Fritz has nothing whatever the
matter with the lungs ! I told Bergmann that when Sir M. Mackenzie
was once allowed to adjust the tubes and treat the throat, the bleed-
ing would leave off and that when Fritz slept better he would eat
again, etc., and be a different person. Bergmann said "Ach wenn das
nur moglich ware}- he will never recover from the state he now is in !
He can only get rapidly worse ! ! " I asked the Herr Professor to wait
a little time and see Fritz again in a fortnight He agreed to this
with a pitying incredulous smile! Kussmaul said that the evidence
of cancer was so without doubt and so abundant that he needed

1 If that were only possible.

277

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 no other proofs! To all this Sir Morell can only say : " The first
pathologist in the world has found nothing of the kind! What I
see of the larynx points in the opposite direction — both these
things together make it impossible for me to affirm that it is
cancer. Cancer may be there, but I have no convincing evidence!
I know more about the throat than these gentlemen, who are, the
one a celebrated surgeon, and the other a general physician, who
chiefly treats complaints of the stomach, and Virchow's micro-
scopical examination seems to me more reliable than that of
Bergmann, Bramann, Krause and Schroder 1 "

Pray excuse my mentioning such horrid disagreeable details!

You can fancy how painful it is to me to hear these opinions
pronounced with such obstinacy — so positively. They fail to con-
vince me, but of course they do easily convince the family, the
court and the public of Germany and Berlin! They can do Fritz
no harm, as they cannot give him a disease he has not got ; and
my life is made quite intolerable, as people think me a maniac for
not bluntly accepting what a German Professor says. I may not
even have the benefit of doubt. It is very tiresome that Fritz has
lost his appetite so completely, and very sad that tracheotomy has
certainly not answered well. These last three weeks have been a great
strain and a great pull on Fritz's strength, and I do not wonder
his being shaken and looking pale and ill, poor dear! Kiissmaul
and Bergmann mean to go away soon and I hope Fritz will gradu-
ally resume his usual habits, but the haemorrhage and expectora-
tion are very troublesome and worrying still and make him very
dependant, as a doctor has always to be in the room day and night
to attend to the canula.

I hope and trust that the rest of Bergmann's and Bramann's
diagnosis and prognosis may be as true as that Fritz is bleeding
from the lungs.

Of course, I am tongue tied. I dare say nothing against the
infallible wisdom of the German medical authorities, or I should
be torn to pieces. Whenever I say that things may go all right, I
am met with incredulous faces of distrust and implying rebuke
and censure. It is really very unpleasant! However I do not care
a rap, so long as we can get Fritz on, and of that I do not despair.

Ten days later she wrote to Queen Victoria :

I ought already to have thanked you for your dear letter of the
278

SAN REMO

ist and now I have a new one of the 3rd to thank you for too! 1888
I was so much out of spirits these last two or three days that I could
not have written a cheerful letter. You will have heard that this
Prof. Waldeger of Berlin, whom I have not seen and do not
know, says he has found undoubted evidence of cancer, Le.j such
an immense quantity of " Nest-cells ". This quite convinces Berg-
mann, Bramann, Schroder and Krause, as it confirms what Kiiss-
maul said! I own it fails quite to convince me, although it increases
the evidence on their side, yet there is the fact that Virchow is
the great pathologist and microscopist, and as you have read
yourself, he found no such evidence, as he does not consider mere
nest-cells as an undoubted proof. Furthermore all the other signs
from November till now do not bear out the theory of cancer,
therefore whilst admitting that it may be, yet I do not feel without
some doubts. Virchow gave a negative opinion and these give a
positive one. The trouble with the bleeding and the canula is going
on, but much less since Sir Morell has changed the tubes! This
last night was the best Fritz has had, less cough and much less
bleeding! He ate rather better yesterday and really does not feel
ill and shaken now at all. Bergmann told Willy that his Papa had
six months to live ! With this idea William has gone away; of course
this is nonsense, a mere guess and a conjecture. It all went straight
between Willy and us and was quite harmonious. He left yesterday
morning! Not one word of sympathy or affection did he utter,
and I was distressed to see how very haughty he has become, and
what tremendous airs he gives himself! It is no doubt the effect
of being told so often that he may be Emperor in less than a year.
His visit did not do any harm, and he did not meddle this time.

I am feeling very troubled and anxious and unhappy with all
this ; and it is hard to feel that people are provoked with me for
refusing to give up all hope, and not rushing back to Germany
now, when I know how dangerous it would be for my beloved
Fritz! No one thinks of that. All they want is to be able to say
that he is in Germany. I say we must wait till the middle of April ;
then we can go slowly home!

The Emperor has not been well these last few days, but is up
and does his business as usual.

The next day, March 7, the Crown Princess wrote to
Lady Ponsonby :

279

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 I have been longing to write to you for such a time and have
never had a minute. Of course, you know all the news I send
from here through the Queen. Again as before, the German
medical authorities have given the very worst verdict ; again it
seems to us to lack convincing power, as so many signs of which
they affirm are wanting. They base all on their newest micro-
scopic examinations — to which we are to trust, seeing that what
Virchow so explicitly said so short a time ago in no way corre-
sponds with what Waldeger now says. I am more troubled and
distressed than I can say — quite miserable sometimes, and yet I
cannot bring myself to see things irrevocably in the very worst
light, there are so many " ifs " and " buts ".

I think my dear husband's general condition much improved
these last few days ; though that odious bleeding goes on, and
the nights are much broken. His appetite is really improving and
he looks much better.

We are rather alarmed about the Emperor this afternoon as he
is said to be weaker than usual. Heaven grant that we need not
be whisked off to Germany where it is terribly cold now. The
Crown Prince has not sufficiently recovered to be able to bear
the strain of all the business and responsibility which would
suddenly fall upon him, and my anxiety would increase tenfold,
as you can imagine.

This is not a very cheerful letter, but I am really oppressed
with all these cares and anxieties and long for a ray of hope and
light in all this darkness.1

The concluding sentence about the Emperor fore-
shadowed a long-expected event. The following day the
news indicated that the end of the nonagenarian monarch
was near. The Crown Princess viewed this event with
no elation, no rapture. Any possible pride or joy there
might have been in the thought that his death would
elevate her to the dignity of Empress was entirely
swamped by the dread certainty that "Fritz" would
have to leave the sunshine and warmth of San Remo

1 Mary Ponsonby, pp. 267-268.
280

SAN REMO

for the wintry weather and bustle of Berlin, and to her 1888
mother she wrote on March 8 :

As you know, the news of the Emperor is such as to oblige
us to prepare for all eventualities! I am in terror when I think
of the journey to Berlin and yet it cannot be helped, or avoided,
if really the change takes place! Fritz must be there to assume
the responsibilities of his position, but it is grievous to think of
the risks he runs and of the painfulness of the whole situation!
He feels it most bitterly — when most he wants his physical powers,
all his strength and energy, he finds himself an invalid struggling
to recover from the effects of an operation, and in a delicate and
sensitive state! Still he will do his duty as best he can and I will
help him as well as I can. He feels very much the idea of his
father being perhaps taken from this world without his being able
to say a last farewell and ask his blessing, or without his being
there to be a comfort to his mother! All this is very sad, but I
am thankful to think that Fritz in his present state of health will
be saved from witnessing the sad and painful scenes and all the
mournful details which would upset him too much. We shall
leave on Saturday morning and go straight through without
stopping, but not to our house. I could not venture to let him
stay there in the midst of the public, a perfect prisoner ; we shall
go to Charlottenburg to Bernhard's and Charlotte's rooms, whilst
they will go to our home in town ! There will at least be a semblance
of privacy and quiet, and we shall not be so overrun.

We are now packing everything so as to be ready to go
together en Uoc\\ It does seem too grievous to leave the sweet
place, the sun, the sea and flowers. Six weeks more would have
set Fritz up and he would soon have begun his walks and drives
again, and it would have done him so much good. Now I do
not know how we shall get on if sleep and appetite fail. It is all
like a horrid dream! I shall miss seeing you, which breaks my
heart! We have so much to do and to think of, to arrange, write
and telegraph, that I must end here, dearest beloved Mama! I feel
sure your heart and your thoughts are with us in this time of sore
trouble and anxiety.

In view of the facts given in these letters of the
Crown Princess with reference to the development of the

281

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 Crown Prince's illness, it is not perhaps out of place to
quote somewhat extensively from Herr Ludwig's recent
book. Kaiser Wilkelm II. In his second chapter he states :

Ever since William's unhappy birth, Victoria (Le. the Crown
Princess) had stubbornly clung to the nonsensical idea that the
German physicians were to blame for her son's disability. This
idee fixe induced her — so all her surviving friends agree — to under-
line her distrust of German therapeutics by calling in an English-
man for her husband. ... At the same time (in 1888) Bismarck
wrote in his unmistakable style an article in the Norddeutsche
Allgemeine Zeitung, the purport of which was that Mackenzie now
declared that he too had quite clearly recognised the disease from
the first, but that the Crown Prince had confided to him that he did
not wish to be pronounced incurable, but on high moral and practi-
cal grounds desired to reign for a short time. ... It is now estab-
lished beyond question that an unimportant English physician of
radical political opinions took upon himself to play the Privy
Councillor, and interfere directly in the history of the German
nation.

By this semi-official declaration Bismarck, before all the world,
displayed his old enemy Victoria as nothing less than the indirect
cause of the premature death of her husband ; he plainly hinted
that she preferred to be the widowed Empress rather than the wife
of an abjuring Prince, the victim of cancer. . . . But we must do
Victoria the justice to say that she was certainly no tigress, but
much the reverse — an emotional affectionate woman ; and there-
fore not to be blamed for hoping against hope that her husband's
life might be saved.

She stands indicted, nevertheless, for serious indiscretion. She
summoned from her native land an undistinguished physician,
simply because she attributed a shortcoming of nature to the
physicians of the land she had adopted. Or did she wish, in love
and sympathy, to conceal his doom from her husband ?

The course of events, moreover, sustains Bismarck's indictment.
Through all that year Victoria maintained the fiction that the Crown
Prince was only slightly ailing, that he was better, that he would
soon be well — not only by numerous despatches and protests to the
public at large, whom on political grounds there was perhaps good
282

SAN REMO

reason to delude ; but with her personal friends and with her chil- 1888
dren she acted this part for thirteen months, during which her
husband was visibly failing at her side. Immediately after the fate-
ful decision in June came her mother's Jubilee. Was she to be
absent from that ? And was her eldest son to bask in that reflected
glory ? No — and against the advice of her most trusted friends
Victoria forced her suffering, already wellnigh voiceless husband
to ride high upon his horse in the London procession, in the hope
of silencing by that parade the whisperings of rumour. . . .

Then the English party prevented the Crown Prince's return to
Berlin, and they wandered, without German physicians, from one
spa to another ; yet when one considers the unremitting care shown
by Victoria during all this time, one is again persuaded that she
really thought it impossible her husband could be suffering from
cancer.

At the beginning of November, a sudden change for the worse.
A sojourn at San Remo, decisive position taken up by the doctors,
communique in the Rekhsan^eiger that the heir to the throne was
attacked by cancer; nevertheless an operation was not to take
place, for the patient did not desire it, and moreover it was probably
too late. " Prince William is entrusted with the Regency."

From this day forward the Prince's every nerve was strained.
He was now in point of fact Crown Prince, and had only to await
the speedy departure of a nonagenarian, and a fatally stricken, fore-
runner. And now the hatred of the parents for their son reached
a commensurable intensity. Thirty years of waiting — and then
Nothingness ! And this crude boy was to step into the vainly-
longed-for sovereignty like an idle stroller — not one hour of
patience or of struggle ! Frederick's Regent ? Then already he
was looked upon as dead ? " I am not yet an idiot, or incapable! "
exclaimed the sufferer, when he heard of his relegation.1

The difficulties that beset the would-be historian are
well illustrated by this account which comes from the
pen of Dr. Emil Ludwig. With every wish to write a
true version of these events, this eminent historian had
to rely for his particulars on the accounts of the German
doctors and on the articles published at that time in the

1 Emil Ludwig* Kaiser Wilkelm II. pp. 33-37.

283

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 German press. The only book that attempts to present
the other side of the controversy was written by Sir
Morell Mackenzie, and was not only an ex pane statement
of fact, but was also universally condemned by the
medical profession both in Germany and England.

Divorced from national prejudice, medical rivalry and
political bias, the story of the Crown Prince's illness
seems to run as follows. When the Crown Prince first
showed symptoms of an affection of the throat, the
principal doctors and surgeons were by degrees sum-
moned. Among them were some of the most eminent
men in the profession : probably no more able men were
to be found in Europe, but not one of them was a
specialist in throat diseases. These German doctors
unanimously came to the conclusion that the probabilities
were that the malady was cancer, but they could prove
nothing. This was at the time, in view of the medical
ignorance on this vast subject, a fairly safe opinion to
give, and in most cases would be right. Mackenzie, how-
ever, was then sent for, and the weight of evidence proves
that he was sent for not by a Princess of English birth
who was reputed to have a bias against German doctors,
but in consequence of the intervention of Prince Bismarck
and on the advice of one of the German doctors to which
the others assented. Mackenzie, on his arrival, knew that
a swelling of the nature from which the Crown Prince was
suffering did not necessarily indicate cancer. On three
different occasions he removed tiny portions of the affected
part of the larynx^ which he submitted to Professor
Virchow, a pathologist of European reputation. Virchow,
after a most thorough investigation of each of the four
fragments, states that no trace of cancer was to be found.
Mackenzie thereupon refused to admit the presence of
284

SAN REMO

cancer until some proof was forthcoming, and it must be 1888
admitted that he played on the uncertainty of the diagnosis
for all it was worth. The fact remains that although the
German doctors eventually proved to be right they were
only relying on surmise, while Mackenzie based his opinion
on scientific analysis which proved to be misleading.

The Crown Princess, delighted at Virchow's reports,
then praised Mackenzie and made tactless remarks which
not unnaturally the German doctors resented.

The controversy then ceased to be a medical one, and
became a question of whether the English doctors (for
Dr. Hovell was now also in attendance upon the Crown
Prince) or the German doctors were right. The Crown
Princess supported the British specialist, and the whole
German nation supported the German doctors, while the
Emperor and Bismarck did nothing.

It was not until the Crown Prince arrived at San
Remo that proof was forthcoming that the malady was
cancer, and it was one of the English doctors, Dr. Mark
Hovell, who raised the alarm. All Germany then rushed
to the conclusion that Mackenzie was a quack and that
the Crown Princess had deliberately sacrificed her hus-
band's life to gain her own ends, while both Mackenzie
and Queen Victoria were accused of having interfered
unduly in what was essentially a German question.

It is unfortunate that Dr. Emil Ludwig has had at his
disposal the evidence relating to one side only of this tragic
story. Such misrepresentations of history are hard to cor-
rect: judge then the feelings of the Crown Princess at the
time, when these inaccurate and biased statements were
being made in the German press, while she was unable, on
account of her position, to enter the polemical arena and
give her account of the facts of the case as she knew them.

285

CHAPTER XI

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

1888 ON March 9, 1888, the nonagenarian, William L, died,
and there began that short ninety-eight days* reign of
the Emperor and Empress Frederick. The new Emperor,
now in his fifty-seventh year, showed visible signs of
his terrible malady, but was still a dominating figure
and still mentally alert. He was at the Villa Zirio, San
Remo, when the news was brought of his father's death,
and immediately the household of the new monarch
gathered in the drawing-room of the Villa. A little later
the new Emperor and Empress entered, and the Emperor,
moving to a small table, wrote out the announcement of
his own accession as Frederick IIL His next act was to
invest his consort with the ribbon of the Black Eagle,
the highest order within his gift. He then greeted Dr.
Morell Mackenzie and wrote for him the words : " I
thank you for having made me live long enough to re-
compense the valiant courage of my wife." How often
must they have talked over what they would do when
they ascended the throne, always imagining the splendour
of Berlin as the scene ! But here they were in the drawing-
room of a villa in Italy, merely a small party with their
own suite. It was all rather pathetic, but the indomitable
pluck of the Emperor and the devotion of his wife made
it impressive as a ceremony.

It was essential that the new Emperor and Empress
286

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

should at once proceed to Berlin. The decision to go 1888
was made by the Emperor, and within twenty-four hours
they were en route. Much criticism was levelled at the new
Empress for bringing back the Emperor to Berlin, but
the decision was his. Always he had put duty before
comfort, and he was not the man to abdicate or fall short
even on the brink of the grave. Before they left San
Remo the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria (March 9) :

The sad news has just come that the dear Emperor has passed
away! Fritz is deeply affected, feels intensely being absent from
his post and is determined to go there, come what may, and to
run the risk. I cannot tell you how anxious I feel and how nervous,
and yet I am sure he is right! Your thoughts are with us I know!
I dread the journey even less than all we shall find when we get
there. Sir Morell has taken the greatest trouble to ensure all pos-
sible precaution being taken, and we must leave the rest in God's
hands.

Thank God that the end was gentle and peaceful and without
pain! What a long and strange career that has been! To think
of my poor Fritz succeeding his father as a sick and stricken man
is so hard!! How much good he might have done! Will time be
given him? I pray that it may and he may be spared to be a
blessing to his people and to Europe. Excuse my ending here —
we are overwhelmed with business and packing, etc.

The journey was swift, and on the evening of March
ii the Imperial party arrived at Berlin. The Emperor at
once took up the reins, although the change from the
warm, sunny, equable climate of San Remo to the sleet
and slush of Berlin must have been a terrible hardship.
More than that, the change from the quiet, health-giving
leisureliness of San Remo to the business and bustle of
the German court, where everything was at sixes and
sevens, was one that might have tried the constitution of
even the fittest.

Two days of such hectic energy were sufficient to

287

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 send the Emperor back to bed, and it was a distressed
wife who wrote to Queen Victoria on March 13 :

How can I thank you enough for your dear letter of the loth,
so kind and loving and so precious to mel I wish I could kiss
your dear hand for it directly 1 I know you will forgive me if
I cannot write today as I should like! It is all like a dream and I
am so overwhelmed with business of all sorts and kinds, things
important and unimportant that have to be seen to. I am not in
our own home and cannot find my things yet! One's heart is
torn and tortured with fears and anxiety and yet I am glad to
think that my beloved Fritz has the satisfaction of feeling that he
is at home, though this is also full of pain as you can understand.

The journey was a great risk and a great fatigue and has done
him harm, but I hope and trust in a few days the effect may be
got over. The night was not good. Of course, the change is
immense, from the life of an invalid to one of business and excite-
ment, far beyond what he is at present fit for. I do what I can
to help him, but the difficulties are immense. I will write and tell
you all as soon as I can! I am feeling dreadfully knocked up and
cannot sleep! Darling Fritz has had to remain in bed today, as
the doctors were not at all satisfied this morning! I hope this
night will be better!

The poor Emperor looked so peaceful sleeping in his coffin and
yet the sight of death to me just now, when so many fears fill my
heart, was agony! I cannot say more. The Empress I think
wonderfully calm and composed, and looking better and stronger
and a little stouter than when I saw her last! Louise and Fritz of
Baden are marvellously calm and collected!

All else I would say, I must put off till another time — questions,
letters, telegrams, visits come pouring in, and I like to devote all
my time to staying with Fritz.

In some quarters the accession of the Emperor
Frederick was expected to see the end of the power of
Bismarck. The opposition of the Emperor and Empress
to parts of Bismarck's policy was widely known, and it
was expected that one of the first acts of the new reign
would be the replacement of the Chancellor by someone
288

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

more in accordance with the liberal ideas of the Emperor 1888
and Empress. But between Bismarck and the Imperial
k pair there was? in spite of surface differences, a funda-
mental and mutual appreciation. The Empress, as Bis-
marck himself said, " shared with him (the Emperor) the
conviction that in the interests of the dynasty it was
necessary that I should be maintained in office at the
change of reign "J- and one of the new Emperor's first
acts was to write to Bismarck a letter inviting him to
continue as Chancellor. The message, dated March 12,
ran:

MY DEAR PRINCE — On assuming power I feel the necessity of
addressing you, the long- tried first servant of my father, who now
rests in God. You have been the faithful and brave adviser who
gave shape to the aims of his policy, and secured their successful
realisation. I and my House are and remain most grateful to you.
You, therefore, have, above all, a right to know the principles
which will direct me in my rule.

The constitutional and legal regulations of the Empire and of
Prussia must, above all, be consolidated in the respect and customs
of the nation. It is, therefore, necessary to avoid, as far as possible,
the shock caused by repeated changes of the institutions and laws
of the State. The furtherance of the task of the Imperial Govern-
ment must leave untouched the bases on which the Prussian State
has hitherto safely rested. In the Empire the constitutional rights
of all the Federal Governments must be as conscientiously respected
as those of the Reichstag ; but the same respect for the rights of the
Emperor must be demanded from both. At the same time, it is
necessary to keep in view that these mutual rights are only intended
for the promotion of the public welfare, which remains the supreme
law, and that new and unquestionable national needs must always
be fully satisfied. As the necessary and certain guarantee of the un-
disturbed furtherance of this task, I look to the maintenance un-
weakened of the defensive forces of the country, of my tried Army
and growing Navy, which has serious duties before it in the

1 Busch's Bismarck.

U 289

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 protection of our possessions beyond the seas. They must both
be maintained at their present perfection of organisation, to which
they owe their glory, and which insures their future capacity to.
accomplish their duty.

I am resolved to conduct the Government both of the Empire
and of Prussia with a conscientious observation of the stipulations
of the respective Constitutions of the Empire and of die State.
They were founded by my ancestors on the Throne in wise recogni-
tion of the necessities and difficulties incident to the social and
political life of the nation, and they must be respected by everyone
in order to give proof of their power and beneficial influence. I
will that the principle of religious tolerance, for centuries past held
sacred by my House, shall also for the future be maintained as a
protection to all my subjects, to whatever religious community or
creed they may belong. Everyone of them is equally near to my
heart, for they have all given equal proofs of like devotion in days
of danger. In perfect accord with the views of my Imperial father,
I shall -warmly support all efforts destined to further the economic
progress of every class of society, to conciliate their divergent
interests, and to mitigate, as far as possible, unavoidable social in-
equalities without, however, exciting the expectation that this can
be done by State interference. Closely connected with the social
question I consider that of the cultivation of youth, and the efforts
to this end must be on a higher scale and be made more widely
accessible. "We must, therefore, avoid raising fresh dangers by
partial education, and awakening demands beyond the economic
capacity of the nation to meet. We must also take care that through
one-sided efforts for increased knowledge, the task of education
shall not remain neglected. Only a generation trained up upon the
sound basis of the fear of God and simplicity of morals can possess
sufficient power of resistance to surmount the perils which in a time
of rapid economic development arise for the entire community
through the examples of the highly luxurious life of individuals.

It is my will that in the public service no opportunity should
be lost of offering every opposition to the temptation to inordi-
nate expenditure. My unbiased consideration of every proposal
of financial reform is assured in advance, unless the long-proved
economy of Prussia does not permit. The imposition of fresh
burdens is to be avoided, and an alleviation of the demands hitherto
made on the country to be effected. The self-government granted
290

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

to the larger and smaller communities in the State I regard as 1888
beneficial. On the other hand, I would suggest for examination
the question whether the right of taxation conferred upon these
communities, which may he exercised by them without making
allowance for the burden concurrently imposed by the Empire
and the State, does not weigh unfairly upon individuals. Similarly,
it will have to be considered whether simplification in the arrange-
ments does not appear admissible by which a reduction in the
number of officials would permit of an increase in their salaries.
Should we succeed in maintaining the vigour of the principles of
political and social life, I shall have special gratification in watching
the full development of the rich progress of German science and art.
For the realisation of these my intentions I rely on your oft-
proved devotion, and on the support of your tried experience. May
I be destined thus to lead Germany and Prussia in a course of peace-
ful development to new honours, with the unanimous co-operation
of the Imperial organs, of the devoted activity of the representatives
of the people and of all the authorities, and with the confiding
assistance of all classes of society. Not caring for the splendour of
great deeds, nor striving for glory, I shall be satisfied if it be one
day said of my rule that it was beneficial to my people, useful to my
country and a blessing to the Empire.

Yours very affectionately,

FREDERICK HI.

The new Empress still could not realise that at most
her husband could live but a few months : on the other
hand many members of the German medical profession,
and many of the chief officials of state, were certain that
the Emperor was already in articulo mortis. The result
was a clash between the Emperor's party and those who
looked forward eagerly to the displacement of a speech-
less sovereign by a young and reputedly able prince.

The Empress had only been in Berlin three days when
these intrigues came to her notice, and on March 15 she
wrote to her mother from Charlottenburg :

I think Fritz's proclamation and also his letter to Prince
Bismarck produced the right impression 3 I think Bismarck was

291

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 surprised at receiving these papers all ready for publication and
written out in Fritz's own hand !

It is very evident that all sorts of intrigues were going on
before he came back and that some were very glad at our return,
others taken aback; most people supposed Fritz would return
merely to resign! Underlying everything is the belief that the
present reign will only last a very few months, and this has all
sorts of consequences! Most of those who have seen Fritz think
him far better and looking more unchanged than they expected

The Empress's relations with the Iron Chancellor
were certainly more cordial after the accession than ever
they had been before. The Empress found him " civil
and nice ", and the Chancellor for his part realised that it
was essential to conciliate the Empress.

On March 16, 1888, at Berlin, the solemn national
funeral of the late Emperor took place. The new Em-
peror, unable to attend, watched the funeral cortege from
his palace window. The Prince of Wales had arrived
to represent Queen Victoria at the obsequies, and his
presence did much to smooth the path of the Empress
Frederick. That day she wrote from Charlottenburg to
Queen Victoria :

This trying day is over at last, and I feel so thankful that Fritz
has stood all the painful emotion and excitement so well. It was
all so hard for him! My thoughts wandered during the ceremony
in the Dom to you and our beloved grandmama, who was taken
from us this day 27 years ago. All went off well, there was no
hitch in spite of the bitter cold weather — sharp frost and deep
snow! The public was respectful and silent, there were no great
crowds. The service I thought rather conventional, stiff and cold ;
the singing was very good! One can hardly talk of service in the
German Church, as it is only an address and an extempore prayer,
both of which I did not think very happy on this occasion! The
hearse was very simple indeed! On account of the bitter weather
Fritz could not leave his room, and I was unable to be with him
at the sad moment. When the hearse passed close under his
292

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

window he quite broke down and was overwhelmed by his feelings, 1888
as you may well imagine! Directly afterwards we went to him
and he was calm again and is now resting a little in bed. He had
rather a better night and does not feel uncomfortable. Yesterday
he saw far too many people and was too much fatigued — today
he has kept comparatively quite quiet.

To have dear Bertie here was a great comfort, though alas, I
have not seen a very great deal of him ! There is an immense deal
to do as you can imagine and all is most difficult and complicated.
I think people in general consider us a mere passing shadow, soon
to be replaced by reality in the shape of William. I may be wrong,
but it seems to me as if the party that opposed and ill-treated us
so long, hardly think it worth while to change their attitude, except
very slightly — as they count on a different future!

It is an inestimable blessing to be relieved from a thraldom
and tyranny which was exercised over us in the poor Emperor's
name, as now the right thing can be done for Fritz's health!
But oh — if it is not too late! too late! This agonising thought
haunts me! Yes, we are our own masters now, but shall we not
have to leave all the work undone which we have so long and
so carefully been preparing ? Will there be any chance of doing
the right thing, any time to carry out useful measures, needful
reforms? Every German who means well, asks himself this
question with bitter pain! It is hard, it is cruel! I hope on and
live — du jour an lendemain. " Enough for the day is the evil
thereof, let the morrow take care of itself." All the more we shall
strive to do what is wisest and safest and best! Prudence and
caution are necessary now where fresh and vigorous regeneration
of many an obsolete and used up thing would have been desirable!
You know and feel all this, I am sure! Prince Bismarck has been
civil and nice and I think feels quite at his ease,

A month later, in mid-April 1888, Queen Victoria,
accompanied by Prince and Princess Henry of Battenberg
and attended by the Dowager Lady Churchill, the Hon.
Harriet Phipps, Sir Henry Ponsonby and Major Bigge
(afterwards Lord Stamfordham), paid a visit to her
daughter and dying son-in-law at Charlottenburg. Just
before her arrival, all Berlin was agog with rumours of

293

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 the resignation of Bismarck. The wishes of the Emperor
and the Chancellor were at that moment in grave conflict,
and the subject of their disagreement was once more the
future of the rwenty-two-year-old Princess Victoria, the
second daughter of the Emperor and Empress Frederick.
The parents still favoured what they believed to be a love
match, and rumour was rife that the Princess was shortly
to be engaged, if not already engaged, to Prince Alexander
of Battenberg.

It will be remembered that while Prince Alexander
was still on the Bulgarian throne the projected alliance
had only been prevented by the determined interposition
of Bismarck. Possibly Bismarck foresaw that Prince
Alexander would have but a brief tenure of power at
Sofia, and was then actuated by a kindly desire to save a
Hohenzollern Princess from associating her fortune with
a Prince whose destiny was so uncertain. Whatever his
motives then, his reasons during the crisis of 1888 seem
to have been dictated solely by considerations of political
expediency. There was still a party in Sofia that would
have welcomed the return of Prince Alexander, and
Bismarck saw that the Prince's marriage would strengthen
the hopes of this party, and possibly embroil Germany
with Russia in the confusion that would follow.

The rumoured resignation did not appear to affect in
any way Queen Victoria's plans or make Her Majesty
hesitate to visit Berlin on her way home from Florence,
but she was relieved to receive the following message
from the Empress on April 5 :

Please be in no anxiety. Crisis of Chancellor is an invention :
we have never been on better terms and the understanding is
perfect. Your visit must on no account be given up.

This message was, however, somewhat neutralised
294

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

by a letter which Queen Victoria received from Lord 1888
Salisbury a day or two later, dated April 6. In the
course of his letter Lord Salisbury said :

... Sir E. Malet telegraphed to Lord Salisbury last night
privately that the Chancellor had spoken very earnestly to him
about the proposed marriage between the Princess Victoria and the
Prince Alexander, stating that he should retire if it took place. Sir
E. Malet asked as to the course he should take as to this communica-
tion. Lord Salisbury advised him that so grave a communication
should not be withheld from Your Majesty : but he thought it
should be sent direct, as it was too closely connected with Your
Majesty's family to be admitted into official communications with
this office. Count Hatzfeldt renewed the subject this afternoon.
Lord Salisbury repeated the same opinion to him. Count Hatzfeldt
however said nothing about Prince Bismarck's resignation, but
only that such an event would force Germany into taking a much
more Russian line of policy than otherwise she would be inclined
to do.

Three days later, April 9, Queen Victoria sent the fol-
lowing message to Lord Salisbury :

Queen has heard from Empress Victoria that she had long inter-
view with Bismarck on 6th, which was very satisfactory on all
points, and she begs Queen not to notice absurd statements in
newspapers.

This again seemed to be somewhat at variance with
other accounts of Bismarck's attitude, for on April 8
Lord Salisbury cyphered to Queen Victoria :

I have received several private telegrams from Sir E. Malet
showing that Prince Bismarck is in one of his raging moods about
the proposed marriage.

He shows temper against Your Majesty and as at such times he
is quite unscrupulous he will probably try to give currency to
statements which are designed to make Your Majesty personally
responsible for any evil results of his own violent passion. He has

295

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 a vast corrupt influence over the press and can give enormous
circulation to rumours. I would humbly advise Your Majesty to
avoid any action which could operate with the controversy which
is going on. The newspapers say that Your Majesty is going to
Potsdam or Berlin. I would humbly submit that this visit at this
time would expose You to great misconstruction and possibly to
some disrespectful demonstration. German Chancellor is reported
by his son to be in a state of intense exasperation. . . .

The Queen was, however., very angry at the way her
daughter was being treated and sent the following instruc-
tion to Sir Henry Ponsonby on April 9 :

Perhaps Sir Henry would write to Lord Salisbury about the
outrageous conduct of Pee. Wm., and of the terrible cerde
vicieux which surrounds the unfortunate Emperor and Empress
and which makes Bismarck's conduct really disloyal, wicked and
really unwise in the extreme! The Queen sends the Empress's
letter to enable Sir Henry to quote parts of it. Russia really
cannot care a straw about Prince Alexander's marriage unless
they admit the probability, if not likelihood, of his returning to
Bulgaria!!

How Bismarck and still more William can play such a double
game it is impossible for us honest, straightforward English to
understand. Thank God! we are English I The Queen will also
write to Lord Salisbury by messenger leaving tomorrow. It troubles
and distresses the Queen very much. But the threat thrown out by
Russia is one which the Queen thinks impudent and impertinent
beyond measure.

The Queen got a letter by messenger from Lord Salisbury
explaining the whole thing, but she only saw it after Sir Henry left
yesterday, but which she will send Sir Henry later.

Meanwhile, the belief that with the approval of the
Empress, Prince Alexander had engaged himself to the
Princess Victoria, caused a domestic and political crisis
in Berlin. Bismarck professed to regard the betrothal
as a nefarious plot on the part of the Empress to em-
broil Germany with Prince Alexander's enemy, the Tsar,
296

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

and he found Prince William vigorously supporting his 1888
attitude.1

Queen Victoria now found the situation very puzzling,
and on April 7 her Private Secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby,
wrote to Sir Edward Malet, who had been appointed
British Ambassador to Berlin on Lord AmpthilPs death
in 1884 :

Reuter says Princess Victoria betrothed. I ascertained that the
Queen is opposed to it and so are Prince and Princess Henry (of
Battenberg). I was allowed to tell you this, but it is not desirable to
repeat it to the Empress.

Two days later Sir E. Malet replied to Sir Henry :

I am most grateful to you for giving me the information con-
tained in your letter of the yth^ and I have made use of it in the
particular quarter where it appeared absolutely necessary. There
has been a terrible storm here on the subject, a regular blizzard, and
I was most glad of the ray of sunshine coming from you. It will go
far to dissipate the cloud.

Four days later, April 13, Queen Victoria, still at
Florence, noted for Sir Henry Ponsonby :

The Queen got this cypher (a private one which is similar to one
used between Dr. Reid and the doctors) in answer to her letter in
which she told him of Lord Salisbury's cypher. She cannot under-
stand how this agrees with Sir E. Malet's letters I That it is all got
up for a purpose the Queen does not doubt and also that Herbert
Bismarck and Wm. are at the bottom of it.

The Empress's reception on her rapid journey has shown to that
wicked clique at Berlin how popular she and her dear Emperor are
in the country!

"(Repeat it.)"

That day Sir Henry Ponsonby wrote to Sir E. Malet :

I am commanded by the Queen to thank you for your letter of
the yth instant which Her Majesty received last night by messenger,

1 Life of Edward VIL, Sir S. Lee, i. p. 501.

297

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 in which you communicate to her an account of Prince Bismarck's
reasons for intending to resign, which you consider were of such a
private nature that you could not give them in an official despatch
but which were communicated to the newspapers immediately after
or possibly before His Serene Highness had spoken to you.

The Queen is quite unable to understand how the visit of a
private individual, such as Prince Alexander of Battenberg is now,
could have aroused distrust in Russia to such an extent as to have
made such an event a cause of danger to the peace between the two
countries, and she must confess that she is surprised that Germany
should be dictated to by the Czar, who has, you say, a craze against
Prince Alexander which as far as the Queen can learn is not shared
by the Russian nation.

Nor is it easy to see how the marriage of Prince Alexander and
Princess Victoria could in any way cement the union of Russia and
France against Germany or cause estrangement between England
and Germany. Surely the prognostications of such great European
changes arising out of a marriage of this sort are absurd. Prince
Bismarck appeals to the Queen, who, he supposes, favours the mar-
riage. He is as much mistaken in this supposition as he is in his other
conclusions, if he imagines that the Queen has urged this marriage.
No doubt she would be glad if the Prince and Princess wished to
marry and if the Imperial family of Germany welcomed such a pro-
posal, that it should take place, but all the details could have been
easily and privately discussed without making a state affair out of a
family matter.

As far as the Queen can learn, the Chancellor allowed his in-
tended resignation to be announced to the world before consulting
the Empress upon this question, and it would appear that after he
had seen Her Imperial Majesty matters were arranged.

This storm might therefore have been avoided if Prince Bis-
marck had only taken the trouble to inform himself more fully of
the facts of the case.

That same day, April 13, 1888, Colonel Leopold
Swaine, the British Military Attach^ in Berlin, -wrote to
the Prince of Wales, and sent a copy of his letter to Sir
H. Ponsonby :

... As regards the ** Marriage Question '*, I have the following
298

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

statement to make which I believe to be perfectly authentic. Al- 1888
ready within the first week of their Majesties' arrival in Charlotten-
burg the Empress determined to bring this matter on without delay
and Prince Alexander was invited to Berlin. Whether he was only to
arrive on Princess Victoria's birthday or already earlier is not quite
clear. At any rate nothing as to this proposed visit was made known
to the Chancellor. There is no doubt that he heard it by accident
and many odd stories are told giving the supposed authoritative
version how it became known to him.

Most persons are agreed that the moment was inopportune for
starting this project which had been so warmly condemned by the
late Emperor ; and also, that it should have been done without in
any way acquainting the Chancellor, who had so strongly supported
the late Emperor against it for state reasons, is equally blamed.

I understand it was the latter more than the former which
irritated the Chancellor, but whether he absolutely threatened to
resign or not I cannot say. I am inclined to doubt it ; although
it is probable that he stated it would be impossible for him to
remain in office if the marriage took place.

It was a fortnight ago yesterday, or will be tomorrow, since the
Chancellor heard of it, and the pourparlers had been going on for
nearly a week before we learnt anything about it. . . .

I have heard from several sources that Prince Alexander is by
no means anxious himself for the marriage. He had a good political
reason for it when Prince of Bulgaria and, while trying to shake off
Russian influence, he was anxious through this marriage to ensure
German support. But all that is past and he is now reported to have
em idrtliches Verhaltniss with a member of the histrionic art.

We are living in sad times here in Berlin. Not sad alone because
we have an Emperor at death's door, nor sad only because there
are family disagreements, but sad, doubly sad, because almost all
officials — perhaps with exceptions, but I know them not — are be-
having in a way as if the last spark of honour and faithful duty
had gone — they are all trimming their sails.

It seems as if a curse had come over this country, leaving but
one bright spot and that is where stands a solitary woman doing
her duty faithfully and tenderly by her sick husband against aU odds.
It is one of the most, if not the most, tragic episodes in a country
and a life ever recorded in history.

The Emperor was far from well yesterday, indeed I believe that

299

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 there was a moment of grave anxiety. A new " canula " had to be
inserted. But the night was a good one and His Majesty was in
town this morning.

This is a letter full of painful facts and I can assure you. Sir, that
we all feel it most grievously — no one is telling the truth, and all
are intriguing for self.

To this letter Colonel Swaine added the "Very
private " postscript : " We have been told that not only
the Queen, but also Prince and Princess Henry of Batten-
berg are strongly opposed to the marriage.5'

It was about this time that Queen Victoria sent the
following message to the Empress : " Don't contem-
plate marriage without full consent of William. It would
never do to contract a marriage he would not agree
to. Sandro's marriage might ruin his whole prospect in
life."

On April 13 Queen Victoria sent the following
message in cypher to Lord Salisbury, the British Foreign
Secretary :

I cannot understand Bismarck's excitement. Three weeks ago
I advised the Empress to take no steps at present in the matter.
Prince Alexander's family do not favour his marriage, particularly
under existing circumstances, and unless accepted by one person it
would be impossible. But Bismarck's tyranny is unbearable, and
I cannot abandon my intention of seeing the dear suffering Emperor
whom I could never see at San Remo.

Queen Victoria had now taken up a very decided
attitude, and on April 21, while still at Florence, wrote
to Lord Salisbury :

The Queen thanks Lord Salisbury for his letter and wishes just
to say in continuation of what she sent by cypher yesterday that she
is sorry to see how Sir Ed. Malet seems to see things through Prince
— and still more Herbert — Bismarck's eyes. She cannot conceive

300

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

what the object of their conduct has been in repeating things as they 1 888
did and above all in Prince Bismarck's conversation with Sir Ed.
Malet and in his sending what almost amounted to a message! to the
Queen. It was too outrageous. In the last letter the Queen received
from her daughter, dated i3th, she says : " I do not wonder that you
should have been startled and alarmed as many people were, by the
senseless^ ridiculous and violent storm in the press, about Vicky and
Sandro ! If you knew why all this row was made, you would see
more clearly, that the reason was a futile one I Our relations with
the Chancellor never have been more cordial or agreeable ; and you
well know that Fritz is too calm and prudent and experienced to
jeopardize peace or the interests of Germany in any way. Fritz
wished to have Sandro here on Easter Monday, to give him
the order Pour le m&rite and a Brigade (not even a Division).
"Whether or not a Verlolung was to have followed was a question
which had not been raised. Prince B. did not wish Fritz to carry
out the intention (which he has had ever since Sandro's return
from Bulgaria) of employing him in the army (for he is their fittest
General) and said that he considered that step one which would
affront the Czar (what an humiliating position for Germany to be
in), while quite admitting that it was most regrettable the Czar
shouldlotik upon it as an offence."

Intrigues of William, etc., followed, and someone must have put
it in the papers! It is disgraceful double dealing, and altogether a
dreadful business and state of affairs. That poor quiet Baroness E.
Stockmar should be distrusted and her letters watched and possibly
tampered with is too bad. The poor Empress is not to have a single
true friend. What makes the Queen so angry is that Sir E. Malet
believes everything which the Bismarcks tell him. He should be
warned to enquire from Sir H. Ponsonby before believing such
things about people.

With the Queen's arrival at Charlottenburg on April
24, Bismarck seized the opportunity to put before her
what he considered to be the facts about the projected
matrimonial contract, and through the British Ambas-
sador made tactful inquiry as to when the Queen could
see him. On April 24 Sir E. Malet wrote to Sir Henry
Ponsojiby :

301

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 I have communicated with Prince Bismarck and he will wait
upon the Queen at 12 tomorrow.

If Her Majesty could also see Count Bismarck for a moment at
some time or another I think it would be useful. He is very English
in his likings and would be greatly pleased at such attention from
the Queen.

The following day, April 25, the interview between
the Queen and the Chancellor took place. Both were in
agreement that the Battenberg alliance would be a mis-
take, and when the Empress found her mother ranged
with the opposition, she yielded. Bismarck had won,
and the price, so the Empress thought bitterly, was her
daughter's happiness. Bismarck's own account of the
interview runs as follows :

. . . Grandmamma behaved quite sensibly at Charlottenburg.
She declared the attitude of the Chief in the Battenberg marriage
scheme to be quite correct, and urged her daughter to change her
ways. Of course it was very nice of her not to forget her own
country and to wish to benefit it where it was possible for her to do
so, but she needed the attachment of the Germans, and should
endeavour to secure it ; and finally she brought about a reconcilia-
tion between Prince William and his mother.1

In a later conversation, Busch records that he men-
tioned to the Chancellor " what Bucher had told me about
the sensible attitude adopted by the Queen of England at
Charlottenburg, which he (Bismarck) confirmed, adding
that at the interview which he had with her he had in
part prompted the admonitions which she addressed to
her daughter ",2

But a more correct version of the visit is contained
in two letters written by Sir E. Malet to Lord Salisbury
on April 28. In the first he says :

1 Busch's Bismarck, vol. iii. p. 187.

2 Ibid. p. 198.
302

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

There is no doubt that the Queen's visit to Berlin has been a 1888
political success.

The circumstances under which Her Majesty's journey was
undertaken, had induced a vague apprehension that it might be
more prudent for Her Majesty not to come. Acting on a complete
misapprehension with regard to the attitude of Her Majesty in con-
nection with an anticipated betrothal of Princess Victoria of Prussia
to Prince Alexander of Battenberg, the portion of the press which
is supposed to write in accordance with inspiration from the
Government had denounced foreign influence in the internal affairs
of Germany, and although the fundamental error of the argument
had been almost officially exposed, the flood of insolent writing
which had been let loose did not quickly subside, and it was feared
that the greeting which might await Her Majesty on arrival would
not be cordial, and that on this account the feeling between Eng-
land and Germany, already somewhat estranged through misrepre-
sentations of the press, might be further embittered. It is there-
fore with no common degree of satisfaction that I am able to record
that the exact reverse has taken place. The breach, such as it was,
has been closed, not widened. The hearty cheers with which Her
Majesty was greeted by dense crowds during her drive through
Berlin, proved how little effect the venom of the press had upon the
people, and the general feeling with regard to the result of the visit
is that it has done great and, it is to be hoped, lasting good.

I may say that this view is shared by many with whom I have
spoken, of whom it cannot be said that their opinion is the result of
the wish being father to the thought.

It is believed that the interchange of personal communication
of the Queen with the Empress Augusta, the Crown Prince, and
Prince Bismarck, has been of the highest value in freely brushing
away industriously woven cobwebs, and the spiders, of which un-
fortunately there are too many, have had to retire to their holes.

Prince Bismarck has openly expressed the great satisfaction
which he derived from his conversation with the Queen, and has
said that if the action of England should correspond with the sound
sense and practical character of the views held by Her Majesty, the
danger of a European war would be minimised.

The grateful tribute to the Queen, which appeared in last night's
North German Gazette, of which I have the honour to enclose a copy
and translation, is a fitting epilogue to the Royal visit, which has

303

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 ended so happily and shown that good will and cordial relations
between England and Germany are once more the order of the day
with the inspired press.

The second letter ran :

You will, ere this reaches you, have heard all about the Queen's
visit both from Her Majesty and the Duke of Rutland. There is no
doubt that it has done much good and that the evil spirits of con-
tention and slander have had to slink away for the time being.
Prince William (the present Crown Prince) spoke about it to me
in warm terms and seemed to be delighted at having had an oppor-
tunity of conversing with Her Majesty. He told me also that the
Chancellor was greatly pleased with his conversation with the
Queen and that he had said to Her Majesty that her visit to Italy,
Austria, and Germany, was like an officer going the round of the
outposts and seeing that the pickets were all doing their duty, and
that it would have an excellent effect in strengthening and encourag-
ing the league of the Central Powers. Altogether I may say that on
this side there is an evident desire, not to say anxiety, to come round
to the point at which we were when the " Chancellor Crisis " arose
and caused our confidence to waver.

At the dinner at the Palace at which the Chancellor sat opposite
to the Queen and the Empress he ardently did his best to be amiable
and agreeable, and I could not help being amused when at dessert
he selected a large bonbon adorned with a photograph of the
Empress and, after calling Her Majesty's attention to it in some
graceful words, unbuttoned his coat and placed it next his heart. In
short to the outward eye there has been a general healing of mental
irritation.

The Queen looked extremely well and was, I believe and hope,
much pleased with the whole visit.

Late that evening, April 25, Queen Victoria left Berlin
for England, via Leipzig and Dresden, and the British
Minister in Dresden, Sir G. Strachey, wrote to Sir Henry
Ponsonby (April 25) :

I was very sorry that the Queen passed through Leipzig in the
night.

That town, which is hyper-Bismarckian (especially National-

304

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

Liberal) and Dresden, which is ultra- Conservative, have shown a 188$*
maximum of hatred of the Empress and the Queen. The Leipzig
Nat.-Lib. Gren^botsn^ an equivalent (in a weak fashion) to our
Fortnightly, which has been often utilised by Bismarck, published
the other day a long tirade against the two royal ladies, in which the
insolence and venom of the Prussian " reptiles " were almost sur-
passed. The folly and vulgarity of the similar lucubrations here
pass belief. Thefreisinnige party in Saxony is weak, so that their
voice cries in the desert ; but they have defended the Emperor, the
Empress and the Queen, with great courage, and pertinacity, and
their Dresden organ exhausts the superlatives of eulogy every day
in praise of all three. As in Berlin, the Radicals (who, after all, are
only on the political level of our Tories) are admirably loyal, while
the Bismarckites are behaving like Anarchists.

For the moment, it would seem as if the " reptile " press had
received a hint to prepare for a change of front. One of the Berlin
gang has the audacity to dilate on " the Reichskanzler's touching,
devoted love for his all-highest master", which may indicate that
Bismarck thinks that the Emperor's recovery is possible.

At the great official dinner on the King's birthday, I found that
all the political summits agreed that Bismarck was the moral, per-
haps the material, author of the whole Hevp, and although the
majority present were " grave-diggers " no one much dissented
from the very undiplomatic language in which I relieved my feelings
at his expense.

Queen Victoria arrived in England on April 27, and
two days later she received the following letter from the
Empress :

It all seems like a dream 1 Your dear visit so ardently wished
and hoped for has come and gone like lightning! But not without
having left much comfort and gratitude behind it, especially in my
heart!

I am indeed thankful that you were able to come and that the
pleasure and emotion did dearest Fritz no harm! Alas, there was
too much to make your visit terribly sad, but still it is sweet to
share not only the bright, but also the dark hours of life with those
one loves!! Why those dark hours are sent we shall never know,
nor understand! Our ideas of justice, of mercy, etc., are too small

x 305

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 and too human, to help us to fathom the reasons that govern the
Universe immutably, by the same great Will that called all into
existence; therefore we must accept and believe that what is our
individual misery and destruction is good and right and necessary
for the whole of which we are so infinitesimal a part ; but our own
soul writhes and sends up a bitter cry — so long as we live and
hope and work and aspire and think and look forward! The
greatest of helps is the sympathy and love of those near and dear
to us — it is the balm that Heaven has placed within the reach of
the suffering — at least, which is not denied to many! and I am
truly thankful for this most precious treasure! Your motherly
kindness and affection has done me good and has refreshed my
aching heart I

I have been back into your empty rooms with a heavy heart!
I fancied you in the cold, wintry night, on your way to Flushing,
and yesterday on the dear yacht, which I am sure tossed a good
deal, and this morning at dear Windsor in your own comfortable
and splendid home!

Your visit gave much satisfaction here and I did not hear or
read one remark to the contrary. Fritz has really had less fever
and has taken his food quite nicely (comparatively speaking) and
has dozed a good bit by day! The cough has not been very
frequent! I hope that the impressions you took away were not
altogether only painful ones!

Lord Salisbury perhaps aptly summed up the effect of
the visit and Bismarck's attitude when he wrote to Queen
Victoria on April 30 :

Lord Salisbury with his humble duty respectfully returns Your
Majesty's memorandum, which he has read with the profoundest
interest. It shows, what also appears from Prince Bismarck's sub-
sequent conversation with the Duke of Rutland, that Bismarck
was deeply gratified at Your Majesty's visit to Berlin, and reception
of himself ; and it gives good hope that he will behave loyally to
the Empress, if dark days should come. But it leaves in as much
mystery as ever Prince Bismarck's extraordinary language with
respect to Your Majesty's supposed action, and the supposed in-
tentions of the Emperor and Empress about the marriage. How-
ever it is evident that the Prince as Your Majesty saw him was in
306

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

his habitual frame of mind; and that the two memorable con- 1888
versations with Sir E. Malet must have been held under circum-
stances of mental excitement and depression which passed rapidly
away. This anxious incident has ended as well as it possibly could
have ended.

In the meantime, the health of the Emperor Frederick
had undergone no improvement \ indeed, his malady had
been somewhat aggravated by the maladroitness of Pro-
fessor Bergmann, which proved to be one of the turning-
points of the case. The facts would appear to be that in
the early morning of April 12 the Emperor was seized
with a severe attack of coughing, which slight adjust-
ments of the canula relieved. At 8 A.M. Sir Morell
Mackenzie arrived, and after consultation with Drs.
Krause and Wegner it was decided to try the effect of a
shorter tube. This, however, did not prove satisfactory,
and Mackenzie then decided to try a canula of a new
pattern, and invited Professor von Bergmann to come
to witness the change. Bergmann arrived at five o'clock
in the afternoon, and he, Mackenzie and Hovell went into
the Emperor's room, where they found him writing.
Bergmann now took out the shorter canula and inserted
the new one, but with such an unhappy effect that the
tube had to be withdrawn and a violent fit of coughing
and haemorrhage followed. Again Bergmann tried, and
again the tube had to be withdrawn, and its withdrawal
was followed by renewed coughing and streams of blood.
Bergmann now asked that his assistant, Dr. Bramann,
who was waiting in his carriage outside, should be
sent for, and on his arrival at once yielded the case
to his assistant, who, taking a moderate -sized canula,
passed it with the greatest ease into the trachea. But

307

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 it was hours before the coughing and the haemorrhage
subsided.1

Bergmann's roughness was never forgotten by the
Emperor, and a pathetic proof of the agony the Em-
peror endured owing to his maladroitness is contained
in one of the last scripts which the Emperor wrote. On
June 12, in reply to a remark about his medicine, or a
question as to his condition, the Emperor scribbled in
pencil upon a half-sheet of notepaper : " There is such
a funny taste in the larynx." In response to another
question the Emperor wrote : " The same Hovell just
tried before Bergmann ill-treated me." z

Four months later, on August 24, 1888, the Empress
referred to this unfortunate incident in her letter to her
mother.

. . . The end [she wrote] was hastened and the strength to
resist the disease was impaired by Bergmann's mismanagement of
the after-treatment of tracheotomy, and by the injury he inflicted
on my poor darling Fritz by so awkwardly forcing the tube back
into its place when no force was required, only skill and patience,
and when Sir Morell was going to do it properly himself, Berg-
mann snatched the canula out of Sir Morell's hands and proceeded
to do it in the most awkward and bungling way. . . .

The result of this unfortunate episode was that Pro-
fessor von Bergmann retired from the case on April 30.
His formal retirement occasioned further vitriolic out-
bursts in the German press against Sir Morell Mackenzie

1 This account follows substantially that of Sir Morell Mac-
kenzie in his Frederick the Noble^ pp. 143-1 53. Professor von Berg-
mann's own account differs in only one particular — that when he
came in to see the Emperor he found him "on the point of
suffocation ".

2 Part of this script was published in facsimile in the British
Medical Journal of October 13, 1888, where the Bergmann and
Mackenzie accounts are considered side by side.

308

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

and the Empress, who, on May 9, wrote to Queen 1888
Victoria :

I regret very much all this wrangling in the newspapers.
Certainly such things have never happened before !! We have
been singularly unfortunate in this respect! Party spirit in Ger-
many runs very high and under Prince Bismarck's high-handed rule
has become very bitter. This accounts for the so-called " National "
element being mixed up with all this!

Poor Sir Morell Mackenzie is really sur les dents with the con-
stant anxiety about and attendance on Fritz. I think his health and
nerves are seriously tried, and this makes him perhaps look less
calmly on all the attacks of the press! Prof. Bergmann has behaved
badly towards us and towards him, besides having been most unsuc-
cessful as a surgeon — on this case. But I am not going to complain
of him, or accuse him in any way. He goes every day to William!
Bergmann has also been made a tool of! The newspapers began
about Fritz's case long before Sir Morell was called in. There
was already a hot controversy so that Sir M. was brought in
against his will. However, I hope and trust there will be no more
of it now and that it will drop! ... It is very bad for the country
and very hard for us.

It was about this period that Sir Morell Mackenzie
and Dr. Hovell, smarting under the bitter and unfair
attacks upon them in the German press, suggested that
a true account of the illness and treatment should be
published. An article was then prepared for publication,
which was submitted to the Crown Princess, whose
pencil comment ran :

This is all right and puts it all straight, only one must take care
that it does not look as though you used the press to defend
yourself, or it might degenerate into a duel between Bergmann
and yourself in the press about your patient. When untruths are
purposely circulated I think that we ought to have a communique
(worded by you or as you like) sent to a newspaper through
Count Radolinsky, as it is not thought etiquette here that the
medical men should communicate themselves to the public any

309

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 news which they had to give, without being authorised on each
special occasion. Bergmann, Gerhardt and Schmidt have broken
through this etiquette, but would not own up to it, and I do not
like the official world here to reproach you with doing what others
are not allowed to do.

Whatever you think not right ought to be contradicted and
in the way you wish, but I think it ought to go through the
official channel! — or it will be difficult to come down on the others
in the way they deserve. I am so unhappy that our dear Dr.
Hovell is so annoyed at this shameful attack. I can sympathise
with him, as I suffer in the same way. I shall take every measure
for his defence.

Then I am afraid that the details about where Wegner lives,
and that he was " allowed " to come twice a day and when specially
called, might hurt his feelings, as he is Letl-Ar^t. Then it is not
necessary to let the public into the fact of where your rooms are,
etc. I am afraid they will say that the Germans are absent and
are kept out of the way. Pray excuse my saying this, perhaps my
fears are groundless, only I wish to smooth the plumage of popular
opinion, which has been artificially ruffled.1

In the result the Empress's wishes were respected,
and for the moment no step was taken that might have
further exacerbated German opinion.

Matters now seemed to be approaching another crisis
between the Empress and her eldest son, " William ",
she wrote to her mother on May 12, " fancies himself
completely the Emperor — and an absolute and autocratic
one! Personally, we got on quite well, because I avoided
all subjects of importance!" Six days later she again
wrote :

Fritz is going on nicely, thank God, only the terrible cough
is very frequent and troublesome — so disturbing and fatiguing
for him by day, but more so by night.

William asks Bergmann to dinner as demonstratively as pos-

1 Extract from the Hovell papers, communicated by Mrs. Mark
Hovell.
310

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

sible, which considering his strange behaviour, is, to say the least, 1888
not very good taste.

For all those who are not staunch or true to us, in the house,
Bergmann was a most convenient tool, and we are thankful
to have someone else. We have no difficulties amongst the
doctors now, nor should we ever have had with Langenbeck or
"Wilms, whom we know so well and liked so much! Of course,
Bergmann did his best and meant well, but he was not the right
person, no more were Schroder and Bramann, though I do not
blame them.

We were most unfortunate with Prof. Gerhardt and most of
all with that disagreeable Landgraf who misled Wegner and so
many others I Now all these difficulties are overcome. If those
with the adverse Party were, we should indeed have an easier
position and easier life!

Prince William, indeed, seemed to be doing all that
he could to annoy his parents, though the Empress, eager
to palliate his offences in the eyes of his grandmother, did
not think that he was always conscious of the offence he
gave. As the Empresss wrote to her mother on May 19 :

What I said about William is in no way exaggerated. I do not
tell you one third of what passes, so that you, who are at a distance,
should not fancy that I complain. He is in a " ring ", a c6terie,
whose main endeavour is as it were to paralyse Fritz in every
way. William is not conscious of this ! This state of things must be
borne until Fritz perhaps gets strong enough to put a stop to it
himself. You have no idea of the vexations and anxieties, the
troubles and difficulties I have to endure. I shall not torment you
with an enumeration, perhaps not knowing the persons concerned,
the intricacies, etc., it might even be very difficult for you to
understand.

Five days later, on May 24, the marriage of the
Empress's second son, Prince Henry, to Princess Irene of
Hesse, was celebrated at Charlottenburg. It was a happy,
joyous day in the midst of illness and despair. A week
later the Emperor, visibly dying, was conveyed by boat

311

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 from Charlottenburg to the Neue Palais. It was in the
Neue Palais that he had been born, here that he had
spent the happiest days with the Empress and, as if to
emphasise this, he now changed its name to "Friedrichs-
kron".

Ill as he was, the Emperor roused himself to deal with
one event that annoyed him. The Minister of the Interior,
Puttkamer, a typical Bismarckian, was one of that clique
who held that an Emperor who could not speak should
not rule, and it was he who had been responsible for the
official announcement of the old Emperor's death which
contained no allusion to the new Emperor. The Emperor
Frederick had borne this slight in silence, but when early
in June he was called upon to sign a Bill prolonging the
life of the Reichstag to five years, he made it a condition
of his signature that the Minister, who had encouraged
corruption in the German elections, should retire. On
June 7 it was certain that Puttkamer would go.

It was in the midst of the " Puttkamer incident " that
Dr. Hovell was recalled to England by the death of his
father, and the Empress, full of sympathy for the untiring
doctor, wrote to Queen Victoria on June 8 :

It is most awkward our invaluable little Dr. Hovell being
absent just now! One feels such absolute security when he sits up
all night I He has lost his father as I told you and is in England.
I am so afraid poor Sir Morell will knock up — he has to be on
his feet all day long and is sometimes rung for three times in ten
minutes!

We have felt anxious and tormented about Fritz in more than
one way! The weather has been cold and wet and he has not got
on as we should wish in more than one respect — Sir M. will write
^tails — still he has done a good deal of business! We have had
great trouble and annoyance — the Ministers do many things of
which Fritz disapproves, but there is instantly a ministerial crisis
about everything as soon as he remonstrates and one has to be
312

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

very cautious. It is most difficult! If we could clear the place of 1888
all spies and traitors, and surround Fritz with trustworthy men
and true supporters, it would counterbalance the power of the
Ministry. To get the right things done, the wrong ones prevented,
and yet not to fall out with Bismarck is a terribly difficult
game to play, and yet it has to be done. Fritz has after much
difficulty and some diplomacy got rid of Puttkamer, which I
consider a great step ! He will be able to carry all sorts of other
things if he can break through the wall of opposition already so
cleverly organised at San Remo, and in which William is so deeply
involved. He would be different to us, I am sure, when these people
and influences have gone, that use him for their purposes against
usl He would be much more amenable and reasonable then I am
sure. You cannot think how hard and difficult my life is I! If I
could think we had a year before usl How much could be done,
but that is so uncertain ! ! and then ?? I cannot think of it all, my
heart is too near to breaking.

Here at this place the contrast is so great with the life we used
to lead — with Fritz about everywhere, and yet it does not do to
think of that, one must be thankful that one has him at all I What
will it be next year?!!

The clique are of course enraged with me, as their one idea is
to isolate me completely, and prevent my having anything to say
about Fritz ; to set the children against me and to make it im-
possible for me to get on with Prince Bismarck, or William, and
make me unpopular in the country by inventing constant lies and
calumnies ; this they began last year already because they thought
it opportune as the Emperor was old and Fritz was ill. I do not
care one rap, and they have not intimidated me as they thought
they could! I receive constant proofs of affection, sympathy,
loyalty and confidence from other circles, so that they are rather
baffled in their attempts to injure me ! and what if they do succeed ?
If Fritz goes, I do not the least care what becomes of me. I do
not want these people's love and I scorn their hatred. Fritz and
I shall be more than avenged some day by the course events will
take when these people come into power. . . .

Now the people are patient because they know their Emperor
is on their side and would fight for their just wishes and aspirations
if his will were not kept in check by the Government and the
Clique Cartell Partei, who take advantage of his illness to wield

313

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 the same power as they did over the Emperor William, who was
quite on their side and had no will of his own, except to retard
all progress.

It is a curious state of things! I am sad and depressed, but not
abashed, and shall fight and struggle to the last. Not with force
or by open opposition can one gain anything ; it is by the greatest
caution and wariness.

The Puttkamer incident, however, only served to
accentuate the growing differences between Bismarck and
the Empress. Puttkamer's resignation was gazetted on
the nth — an event which Bismarck signalised by giving
a dinner at which Puttkamer was the guest of honour!

All knew that the Emperor's days were numbered.
The Empress — isolated, friendless, heartbroken — could
only write to her mother on June 12 :

I have not the heart to write — I do not feel able! and yet I
do not like to leave you without a line! Things are not going
well! I have not much hope left, but how long our precious one
will be left to us I do not know; it may be for some time yet, it
cannot be for very long! Pray do not spread any alarm, it makes
our position ten times more painful and difficult, and to be able
to do the best for him, make him as happy and comfortable as we
can without impertinent interference, and without all the brutal
heartlessness I had to submit to when Fritz was so ill — after the
1 2th April — is all I can crave for! I am" too miserable, too
wretched to write more! You who went through December 1862
will understand all!

The next day she wrote :

My days and nights pass I know not how ! I hardly leave Fritz's
room, or the one next door, only going upstairs to sleep. . . .
Sir Morell has with wonderful skill and dexterity succeeded in
feeding him with a gutta percha tube, so that enough nourishment
can now be taken quite well! But what it is to me to see my poor
darling so changed! He is a perfect skeleton now and his fine
thick hair is quite thin. His poor throat is such a painful and
shocking sight, that I can often hardly bear to look at it, when it

314

THE REIGN OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

is done up, etc. I have to rush away to hide my tears often! It 1888
is very difficult to keep the air pure in the room, so it is a great
comfort that the weather permits his being on the terrace! Oh,
the bitterness of looking round our pretty home and knowing
that my three darling girls will have to leave it for ever, with all its
sweet and sad recollections! It was the long slow work of years
to put it straight — not for us to end our lives in ; but these are
minor considerations.

How much I have to suffer in a thousand ways you do not
know. . . .

You ask what you can do for me!! It is too kind and dear of
you ; now I know of nothing, but later there will be a great deal,
and I shall often ask your advice. I feel so like a wreck, a sinking
ship, so wounded and struck down, so sore of heart, as if I were
bleeding from a thousand wounds. Writing makes my tears flow,
thinking also, speaking with friends — too! It is only dry hard
business I am fit for, and there even my memory seems to fail me,
and at times I can remember nothing but the pain! !

Two days later, on June 15, 1888, the Emperor
Frederick died at eleven o'clock. That evening the dis-
tracted Empress wrote to her mother :

On the 1 4th December 1862 you found time and strength to
write me a line in your overwhelming grief, and I, through agony,
half-distracted, yet must send you a few words! I cannot tell you
what hours those were, and what images torture my mind, what
impressions rend my heart. Oh! they will haunt me for ever!
The wrench is too terrible — when two lives that are one are thus
torn asunder, and I have to remain and remember how he went
from me! Oh, the look of his dear eyes, the mournful expression
when he closed them for ever, the coldness and the silence that
follow when the soul has fled. Oh! my husband, my darling, my
Fritz!! So good, so kind, so tender, brave, patient and noble, so
cruelly tried, taken from the nation, the wife and daughters that
did so need him. His mild just rule was not to be. Forgive me if
I write incoherent nonsense, but it is almost too much to bear!
Thank God his kind heart does not suffer what mine does now!!!
I have taken my last leave, my last look. I am his widow, no
more his wife! How am I to bear it! You did, and I will too. You

315

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 had your nation, your great duties to live for ! I have my three sweet
girls — he loved so much — that are my consolation. When they
want me no more, my time is at your disposal whenever you care
to have me with you! I tried to help him with might and main,
to be useful to him, to save him all trouble, annoyance and pain.
I think I succeeded to a certain degree! I always said I was his
watch-dog!! Now all struggles are over! I must stumble on my
way alone! I shall disappear as much from the world as possible
and certainly not push myself forward anywhere! Those who
really loved him will be kind to me for his sake!

I must end here, I feel ill and sick, sore and broken, but not
tired, alas! no — I feel as if I should never sleep again.

CHAPTER XII

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

WITH the death of the Emperor Frederick, the Empress 1888
lost for the time being all hope, all desire. Life with her
husband gone, was empty and bitter. All that she desired
was solitude and peace, but scarcely had the Emperor's
eyes closed in that last long sleep than there broke out a
virulent campaign of vituperation against the Empress
such as few have had to endure.

The Empress was much pained to find that her son
could scarcely bring himself to express sorrow for his
father's death, and that he gave the impression that he held
his memory in small esteem. The Bismarcks, father and
son, followed the Imperial lead, and shocked the ex-Em-
press by heaping disparagements on the dead man's name.
Count Herbert excelled his father in offensiveness and
spoke of the Emperor Frederick as an " incubus " and
an " ineffectual visionary M.1 In a conversation with the
Prince of Wales he bluntly suggested that " an Emperor
who could not talk was unfit to reign ", The Prince of
Wales subsequently admitted to Prince von Hohenlohe
(afterwards German Chancellor) that he found the
greatest difficulty in restraining his temper at the time.2

Bismarck now became all-powerful again, and no
humiliation or pain was spared die ex-Empress, either by

1 Die Grosse Politik, vol. vi. p» 326.

2 Memoirs of Prince von Eohenlohe, vol. ii. p. 391.

317

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 the Chancellor or his new master. As soon as it was
known that the Emperor Frederick was dying, a cordon
of soldiers was secretly drawn round Friedrichskron, so
that no documents might be removed without the know-
ledge of the new Emperor. The Master of the Household
hastened to promulgate the order that " No one in the
Palace, including the doctors, is to carry on any corre-
spondence with outside. ... If any of the doctors
attempt to leave the Palace, they will be arrested."1
The Empress and her suite were practically under arrest.

Immediately after the death of the Emperor Frederick
the scene was transformed. " It was ", as Ludwig re-
counts,2 " as though a monarch had been murdered, and
his hostile successor, long prepared, had seized upon
the newly acquired authority. * Divisions of training-
battalions approached the Palace at the double ; round
all the terraces was a regular system of guards with loaded
guns. Major von Natzmer, one of the intruders of the
night before, sat ready mounted, and the moment death
was announced he galloped round the Palace, giving
orders, inspecting guards. Suddenly the Hussars ap-
peared at a trot ; divisions established themselves at all
the gates of the Park ; the Palace was, in the military
sense, hermetically sealed/ Anyone who wished to leave
had to have a permit from the new master's aide-de-
camp ; telegrams had to bear his visa."

Vainly did the Empress Frederick appeal to the young
Empress ; equally vainly did she request Bismarck, the
day after the Emperor's death, to grant her an interview.
Curt and uncompromising the reply came that Bismarck
had no time as he was so fully occupied with his new
master.

1 Ludwig, Kaiser William II. p. 54. 2 Ibid. pp. 54-55*

318

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

The following day the Empress, with her three 1888
daughters, fled from Friedrichskron to her farm at
Bornstedt, and on June 18 she wrote to Queen Victoria:

I have fled here to our little farm with my three darling girls —
their Governesses, Frau v. Stockmar and three other ladies (friends
of mine).

They are going to bury him now! — to carry him out of the
dear house in which he was born, in which he died, where we
have spent nearly thirty happy summers3 and which we considered
as our home. How pleased and proud he was to call it his own —
for the first time — how many plans he had for beautifying and
completing it! He only passed a short fortnight of sickness and
weariness in it, but surrounded by love and affection, tended and
watched with loving, tender and devoted care, and now he has
left it for ever!! Oh God, why was I not allowed to go with
him — why, oh why this separation? You bore it, and I must bear
it! It would not be right nor grateful to mourn against God's
decree. But more cruel suffering was never laid on human soul
than on mine at this moment!

On this sad day,1 once a glorious day of victory, when
Germans and English fought side by side, my sweet precious
little Sigismund was torn from us! We were not together, and I
passed through those bitter hours alone, and I remember well
that I was glad his kind and tender heart was spared all those
agonising scenes. Now again the same bells are tolling. Are they
really for him, the good, the noble, the brave, patient, enduring,
pure and kind!! Oh, such men should not die! They have no
right, I think. They are wanted in this sad world, but they also
have much to suffer ! !

I have received your dear letter and have it with me here and
read it with grateful heart! Your love and sympathy does my
bleeding, aching, broken heart good! and consoles me! Yes, you
say right! Your angel husband left your side, left you alone, but
you were permitted to continue his work, you could live with his
dear memory and spirit inspiring and guiding you — for the same
task and duties as he lived for!

I see others take his place, knowing they cannot fill it as he did I

1 The anniversary of Waterloo.

319

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 Their aims and aspirations, their principles are other ones, and
all the nation feels this with me, with the exception of those who
loved us not and who opposed and crossed us — for thirty years.
Theirs is now the power!

I disappear with him. My task was with him, for him, for his
dear people. It is buried in the grave where he will be buried
today I My voice will be silent for ever ! I feared not to lift it up —
for the good cause — for him!

I would have fought and struggled on! We had a mission,
we felt and we knew it — we were Papa's and your children! We
were faithful to what we believed and knew to be right. We
loved Germany — we wished to see her strong and great, not only
with the sword, but in all that was righteous, in culture, in progress
and in liberty. We wished to see the people happy and free,
growing and developing in all that is good. We tried hard to
learn and study and prepare for the time in which we should be
called to work for the nation. We had treasured up much experi-
ence! Bitterly, hardly bought!!! — that is now all wasted. It does
seem cruel that he who had no other thought but to be just, to
help others, to make peace, heal many a wound and dry many a
tear, to do good, should be taken away, the hand stayed that
worked so willingly, the eye closed that looked so kindly on all
that approached him!

Where shall I go, what will be my home, I know not, neither do
I care. I am his widow and that is enough for me ! My three darling
girls that feel all as I do, that loved him as tenderly as I did
almost, will not leave me until they have homes of their own!
He blessed Vicky, he sent his blessing to Sandro, he told me to
write to Prince Alexander — he wrote to Willy and spoke to our
friends, and we shall wait in silence and in patience until we know
whether William will do his father's bidding, respect his wishes
and carry out his intentions! With a disposition like his it is no
use to drive him, or hurry him! Now you will have no reason to
be against us, or not to help us, when the right time comes! We
are no longer people of political importance ! How my Fritz loved
you! He kissed your photo the other day, his whole dear face
brightened and was lit with a smile when I read bits of your
letters to him ! Die gute Mama/ wie lielt man ihr! — he always said,
and was so pleased when you sent him messages! He did so love
and admire England, was so proud of being popular there, and of
320

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

being your son-in-law. He would have been a true and faithful 1888
friend and ally! He was so anxious to bring the two countries
as near to each other as possible. The British nation, so true and
free and generous, will not forget him, I feel sure!!

I must end here — my grief overwhelms me and I cannot write
properly. Goodbye, goodbye.

This letter brings out the fact that although the
Empress must have been cut to the quick by her son's
behaviour, not one word of reproach or complaint
escaped her lips. Her humiliation she bore in silence.

One of the dying wishes of the Emperor Frederick
was that his son should place no obstacle in the way of
the marriage of Princess Victoria with Prince Alexander
of Battenberg. In his will, dated April 12, the father had
written : " In case I am ... summoned hence, I wish
to have set in evidence as my unbiased personal opinion
that I entirely acquiesce in the betrothal of your second
sister with . . . Prince Alexander of Battenberg. I charge
you as a filial duty with the accomplishment of this my
desire, which your sister Victoria for so many years has
cherished in her heart. ... I count upon your fulfilling
your duty as a son by a precise attention to my wishes,
and as a brother by not withdrawing your co-operation
from your sister." x The son showed his respect for his
father's dying wishes not only by breaking off the engage-
ment, in which proceeding he had Bismarck's veto to
appeal to, but in his letter of explanation to Prince
Alexander he claimed that the rupture was because of
" the profound conviction previously held by my late
deceased grandfather and father *'.2

The ex-Empress returned to Friedrichskron a few

1 Hartenau Archives, quoted by Corti, p. 336.

2 Ludwig, p. 56.

Y 321

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 days later. Here another humiliation was in store, for
her son, the new Emperor, let it be known that he
objected to his father's name being perpetuated in the
name of the palace, and that its former title of Neue
Palais would be restored. In such a way were all the
wishes of the dead Emperor disregarded.

On June 25 the Emperor William opened the first
Imperial Parliament of his reign with great pomp and
pageantry, and in his opening speech promised to " follow
the same path by which my deceased grandfather won the
confidence of his allies, the love of the German people,
and the goodwill of foreign countries **. Many there
were who interpreted this statement to mean that he did
not intend to carry out any of the wishes of or liberal
ideals of his father. In his own Memoirs he himself gives
ground for this opinion when he states : " The tragic
element for me in the matter of Bismarck lay in the fact
that I became the successor of my grandfather — in other
words that, to a certain extent, I skipped a generation." 1

On June 29 the ex-Empress wrote from the Neue
Palais to her mother :

I pass hours of utter lisdessness and a feeling of despair comes
over me, then again I reproach myself with not having done
enough for him, for having left for " Ost-Preussen *" when his
days were numbered. Then I feel burning with indignation and
disgust at the disgraceful language and behaviour of certain people,
and then I feel how small that is, compared with the tide of tears
and mourning, of true love, sympathy and admiration, which wells
up day after day from the heart of the nation. So I am tossed to
and fro. Many a stab and smart makes me writhe, but I try to for-
get it as soon as possible. I close my eyes and ears to the official
world and find it the only way not to feel the profoundest irrita-
tion with "W. I am only too ready to make all allowances for him

1 Ex-Emperor William's My Memoirs, 1838-1918, p. 3.
322

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM H

when I think of the deplorable friends he has had, and of all the 1888
nonsense with which his head has been so systematically stuffed

I saw Sir Edward Malet yesterday. There is nothing settled
yet about my plans. I cannot make any until the " Will ** has been
carried out and I know what pied a terre I can have here, and also
what place I can have as my own private property. Two have
been offered which would do exceedingly well, but more enquiries
about terms, etc., have to be made.

I busy myself every day in Fritz's rooms, by degrees replacing
them in the state they were in before his illness, as I shall have to
give up this dear house. I do not like others to turn everything
topsy-turvy. It is quite deserted and silent, but the quiet, sad as it
is, does one good.

The whole pageant and pomp about the Reichstags Erofmung
I thought very silly and absurd and out of place. . . . The signifi-
cance was that Prince Bismarck wished to show how delighted
he was at the commencement of a new era, so much more to his
taste than the three months of Fritz's reign. Of course a whole
chorus echo this sentiment. Fritz of Baden, who has the vanity
of taking the lead in all those things and is fond of prote'g6-ing
the Empire, never sees how he plays into Prince Bismarck's hands
on all occasions; so do most of the German sovereigns. Of all this,
on which one could speak volumes, I will be silent now. . . .

Queen Victoria welcomed these frank expressions of
opinion from her daughter, and soon made it evident to
the new Emperor that she disapproved, if not of his
actions, at least of the actions of those of his staff who
were encouraging him in his truculent attitude. Particu-
larly did she dislike General von Winterfeldt, who as the
emissary of the Emperor William now came to Windsor
to announce the accession of the German sovereign. The
choice of such a man as the special envoy — for Winter-
feldt had been one of those who seemed to glory in
the early death of the Emperor Frederick — filled Queen
Victoria with dismay, and her reception of the General
could scarcely be described as cordial. A few days later

323

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 (July 4) Colonel Leopold Swaine, the British Military
Attache in Berlin, wrote to Queen Victoria's Private
Secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby :

. . . The young Emperor spoke to me this morning of the cold
reception his special Envoy, General von Winterfeldt, had received
at Windsor. After what had passed between us in the picture
gallery and what you wrote to me in your first letter I was in hopes
it was going to be otherwise. But, alas, it has not been so. The
Emperor is much hurt. I gather from my interview with him after
the parade today that he feels he is treated as a grandson and not as
German Emperor. I don't think he will resent it this time, but I am
very anxious even on that head, for there are many advisers here
who, feeling as he does, are ready to recommend it. No man is
striving harder than Malet to bring about and foster a good under-
standing between the two countries, and it is literally cutting away
the ground from under his feet if all he does is undermined by our
court.

I know you are doing all you know to throw oil on the troubled
waters, and you will see by what I now tell you how necessary it is
to continue to do so at every opportunity. I am quite upset by this
unfortunate turn matters have taken and am longing to get away
from here.

The letter was passed on to Queen Victoria, who
appended the laconic comment :

The Queen intended it should be cold. She last saw him as her
son-in-law's A.D.C. He came to her and never uttered one word
of sorrow for his death, and rejoiced in the accession of his new
master.

Sir Henry Ponsonby utilised this note as the basis of
his reply to Colonel Swaine, and the young Emperor
quickly learnt that although he could do what he liked
in Germany it was necessary to be careful where Queen
Victoria was concerned.

Queen Victoria's replies to the letters of her daughter
brought no little measure of consolation, but the Empress
324

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

Frederick's cup of bitterness was not yet full. It was not 1888
sufficient that she had withdrawn from all active participa-
tion in affairs of state : not sufficient that she desired to
be left alone ; all the machinery of vindictive interference
was now brought into play. Her every action during the
Emperor Frederick's illness was now to be put under
the magnifying glass of an inquiry. As she wrote to her
mother on July 5 :

A thousand loving thanks for your dear letter of the 3rd (the
day of the Battle of Koniggratz). It is so kind of you to write so
often! I am so grateful for it! My days pass wearily and the
pain gets no better and many are the stabs I feel! The whole of
the new Court, their doings, etc., grate on my feelings of course 1
It would be wrong to wish others to be as miserable as I am!
But to see them all full of life and hope and in the place he ought
to fill and yet so unlike him, so unable to understand him or me,
is intensely painful.

Yesterday all the Ministers came to take leave of me, then all
the Aides-de-Camp, then a deputation, the wives of the Berlin
Artists, who mean most kindly! As I have my veil down during
these audiences, they can luckily not see my face.

The language of the official press, Norddeutsche Kreu%-Zeitung
and Post continues to be shameful and disgraceful!!! but the
generality of German papers are most nice!

Bergmann, who did so much harm to my beloved darling, is
continually received by William, and has now been charged by
William to write a pamphlet about Fritz's illness. I begged
William to let this controversy cease, as it gave me so much pain
and was so useless, but he has taken no notice of what I said!

Prince Bismarck has not asked to see me, to take leave, or to
condole!

A splendid place on the Rhine has been offered me, which I
should like of all things, but I fear I should not have the money
to buy it, though the Crown would give me something towards
it, as it was Fritz's intention to give me a sum to buy myself a
place! I do not think it ought to be out of Germany, for different
reasons which I can explain to you! . . .

Oh! there is so much would wring your heart if you knew

325

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 all I went through. Yes, indeed Fritz will be terribly missed,
there is no one to appeal to. The King of Saxony, Louis and
Fritz of Baden are too anxious to be well with the present Govern-
ment to be just or impartial.

The reigning party here are anxious to wipe out all trace of
Fritz's reign, as of an interlude without importance, and the
spirit of which they think unjustifiable. William II. succeeds
William I. — in a perfect continuity of system, aims and tradi-
tion! Frederick III. would have had to be submitted to, but
he has been happily removed by Providence before he had time
to set his mark and his stamp on the German Empire ; the sooner
he is forgotten the better, therefore the sooner his widow dis-
appears the better also. How little in harmony with the German
nation this is, they well know, or they would not take so much
trouble to attain their object 1 Of course, as these people are friends
of William and Dona, their object is not easily perceived, and
W. and D. would be shocked if they could view it all as it is. On
the other hand their opinions in general are completely that of
the party who have fought and worried us for so many years,
and the Empress Augusta and Louise of Baden refuse to see all
this as it is, that they are really blinded to these facts. I am glad
to see and hear of it all as little as possible, and am very nearly
indifferent to all this, so deep and intense is my disgust and con-
tempt for these people and their doings, and so great my gratitude
for all the touching sympathy and love shown for those for whom
Fritz was so anxious to work and to live.

On July 10 the National Zeitung published a long
extract from the advance sheets of the German doctors'
reports upon the Emperor Frederick's last illness. It is
noteworthy that this publication contained nothing from
the pen either of Professor Virchow or Sir Morell Mac-
kenziej nor even from Dr. Krause or Dr. Hovell. Ger-
hardt and Bergmann were the main authorities quoted,
and in its entirety it constituted an indictment of the
diagnosis and treatment by Sir Morell Mackenzie, and
sought to prove that Professor von Bergmann was right
from the first in his diagnosis of cancer. The distress
326

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

this report occasioned the Empress may be gathered from 1888
her letter to her mother, dated July 12 :

The publication about my darling Fritz's illness, permitted
and authorised by "William, makes me quite ill! It is an outrage
to all my feelings, I think cruel and disgraceful! He has no heart,
he cannot understand how insulting it is to have all the details
which concern so harrowing and painful a thing as the illness of
one's own dear husband, father of one's children, officially dragged
before the public, in order to satisfy the spite and vanity of four
people, Bergmann, Gerhardt, Bramann and Landgraf ! They are
to be considered first, and I afterwards! It is quite unusual to
publish secret state documents deposited in the Archives of the
Haus Ministerium.

Now I hear that a fresh coup is meditated against me, which
is already beginning to appear in hints in the Cologne Gazette —
to make the public believe that I have tried to get Ernest of
Cumberland replaced in Hanover. It seems so ridiculous that no
sensible person could believe such rubbish, but it is already half
believed because it emanates from the Wilhelmstrasse. I fancy
they will find it rather difficult to prove such a thing! but it does
not prevent them from trying it. Calomnie^ toujours — il en rests
toujours quelque chose — this is the principle they go on! . . .

An indication of how the Empress bore her mis-
fortunes may be gathered from a letter written on August
4, i888? by her sister, Princess Christian, to Lady Pon-
sonby. The letter ran :

I thought it best merely to write you a business letter and then
to write another letter cdl about my beloved sister. Thank God I
can really give you a good account of her on the whole. Her health
is good when one considers the tremendous strain on it, but her
nervous system is so shaken that she oftentimes feels wretched and
ill when not really so. She does not like being told that she looks
pretty well or better than one expected, so I never make any re-
marks. This horrid damp weather and perpetual deluges of rain
have given her bad rheumatism, from which she has been very
suffering, but I am thankful to say that is better today. I think her
much aged, and at times her face is pinched and drawn, otherwise
she is unchanged.

327

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 It is most touching to be with her, and my admiration is beyond
words. I never saw such a courageous woman — for crushed and
broken-hearted under a load of sorrow and care such as few have
ever had to bear, she always pulls herself together, determined to
face whatever comes, and thinking all the time of how she can help
others and what she can do for the good of her country.

She has terrible bursts of grief and despair at times, but gener-
ally she is very calm and quiet — at times almost cheerful — full of
interest in everything and all that is going on.

At times it is all I can do to keep my tears back when I look at
her dear face with that expression of mental pain and suffering on it.

Her future plans are all uncertain, and she has no idea at present
where she will make her home. She has the Palace at Berlin, but
that is all, and she may have the use of the Castle at Homburg or at
"Wiesbaden 1 I think she would like to find something that could be
quite her own, not a Crown property. She has heard of several places
— but has not decided on anything as yet. I shall be truly glad when
she has, for this uncertainty is most tormenting.

The young Emperor has returned and so far he has been very
nice and pleasant with his mother, but of course he does do a
thousand and one things which hurt and pain her, and which one
would give worlds he did not do. But I really think he does them
out of thoughtlessness and certainly not from premeditation. I have
said and done my very utmost to try and smooth down matters
and have implored her to take him as much into her confidence as
she can by consulting him about trifles. This would flatter and
please him — and she would unconsciously gain a far greater in-
fluence than she at present has any idea of. I hear from all sides that
he does wish to be nice and kind to his mother and does think very
much about her. Of course there are that set who are determined
to try and prevent him getting on well with his mother and whose
one object in life it is to keep them apart, yet I am not without hope
that things will by degrees become far more comfortable between
mother and sons. But Vicky has endured so much — has suffered so
cruelly — has been so tormented and persecuted — that she has much
to forgive.

I am so thankful I have been with her, and she makes me so
happy by saying that I am a comfort and help — would that I could
do anything to lighten her burden I Ah! dear Mary, my heart is so
sad and heavy — and even here one can sometimes scarcely realise

3*8

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

the terrible truth. One misses him at every turn — dear beloved 1888
Fritz!!

I leave for Homburg on Monday night, but my sister has asked
me to return to her again towards the end of September, which I
shall only too gladly do. . . .

Nine days later (August 13) the Empress wrote to
Queen Victoria :

Of course it pains me much to see how little there is of mourn-
ing at the Marmor Palais and many other things I do not approve
of — of course I do not say a word and never shall again. I do
not see much wisdom or prudence, and can only sigh over the
things which would have been so differently treated and handled,
had beloved Fritz remained only a little in the place he was so
well prepared and called to fill. With years William might have
gained experience and insight, and under his father have been
trained to carry on his work with judicious care. Such was not to
be Germany's fate! The ruling party try to accentuate in every
way how William is his grandfather's and not his father's suc-
cessor ; this party broke Fritz's heart by taking our sons away
from us — and trying to force them into another mould, another
direction, which they never would have had if they had remained
under our influence! Nobody worked harder at this than the
Empress Augusta, or triumphs more at this moment, sad to say.
But my beloved one's name is fast becoming a watchword with
the people, and the whole moderate Liberal and progressive Party
will rally round it! Kaiser Friedrich's proclamation embodies what
they hoped and wished, and what they will work for! They will
never get it from Prince Bismarck, nor from William. All that is
so sad!! . . .

The Empress's withdrawal from affairs of state was
quickly seized upon by her enemies to mean that hence-
forth she was to be treated as a quanme negligea&le, and
there resulted a lack of courtesy, of consideration, that
finally led the Empress to protest. As she wrote on
August 22 :

It is most strange to watch things here now. In my deep

329

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 mourning and overwhelming sorrow, they do not even annoy or
irritate me, but I cannot help smiling sometimes. For instance :
the Empress Augusta sees everybody, audiences and dinners every
day regularly. She especially receives all people who are William's
proteges or appointed by him! There is a continual intercourse
between the Marrnor Palais and Babelsberg. Messages carried to
and fro — they ask the Empress Augusta about everything. This
house does not exist! William never comes, and I am taken no
notice of! It seems to be more and more adopted that I am the
third here at Court! You know how very indifferent rank and
etiquette, honours, etc., are to me, but yet I am often shocked at
the want of courtesy and considerate behaviour I meet with. I
am quite ready to give way to the Empress Augusta on account
of her age and her being my mother-in-law, but to have to knock
under to my own daughter-in-law besides, makes it rather trying
and almost ludicrous sometimes. . . .

It is no secret and a fact that as far back as March 1887 people at
Berlin, of that certain Conservative set, talked loudly of Fritz not
succeeding his father, that he ought to give up to William, who was
the only proper successor to the old Emperor, and that Fritz and I
ought to live retired in some Schloss as private individuals!! This
was their wish! Hence their rage at Fritz having reigned at all, be-
cause it spoilt their programme, hence their fury that Sir M. Mac-
kenzie would not pronounce it a cancer and incurable, in May, and
would not recommend the operation. Hence their ceaseless en-
deavours to obscure Fritz's memory, — and to calumniate me and
run me down in every imaginable way! Forgive my writing all this,
but it is a page in the history of the Bismarck era, and is true ! All
that is foreign, especially all that is English, is hated, because it is
thought to have a Liberal tendency! They did not understand Fritz,
he was too good, too noble and too tolerant and enlightened. They
would have had to obey him, and had he been well and strong and
spared to reign, he would have scattered this impertinent, daring,
and good-for-nothing set to the winds! They know it so well
and they are therefore so thankful to have escaped. In silence and
solitude I carry my cross and find it very hard, very cruel and
bitter, but I know that the wise and the peace-loving, the moderate
and the right-minded of all nations mourn with me one who
never can be replaced, and feel how great is the loss to every good
cause! Amongst the Liberals I have many good and true friends.

330

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

Also amongst men of science, letters and art, but these people i8S8
are not noisy or powerful.

Three other friends the Empress had who never
deserted her, and never allied themselves to the party
that were endeavouring in every way to belittle and
calumniate the dead Emperor — these were her three
youngest daughters — Princess Victoria, who had suffered
from her brother William's and Bismarck's action in for-
bidding her engagement to Prince Alexander ; Princess
Sophie, the Duchess of Sparta ; and Princess Margaret
(Princess Frederick Charles of Hesse).

Bismarck now definitely let it be known that it was
his opinion that had the German doctors been entrusted
with the care of the late Emperor, events might have had
a happier sequence. Sir Morell Mackenzie was abused far
and wide, and the main indictment in the abuse was that
he had been selected by " that Englishwoman "? the
Empress Frederick. On August 24 the Empress wrote
to Queen Victoria :

I ought to have added that when this terrible operation was
recommended last year, I was not clearly told of all the dangers
and of the chances of success! When I complained of this later, I
was told " If the Crown Prince and Crown Princess are told all,
they will not be got to consent and submit to it ". Surely that
was not right! I should have protested violently before Sir Morell
Mackenzie was called in had I been aware of all the facts connected
with the operation. I fancy Wegner very reluctantly agreed to the
idea of the operation, but he let himself be guided by Bergmann
and Gerhardt, who had taken the responsibility, and I went entirely
by what they said! How could I do otherwise!! Bergmann said
to Wegner, " Es 1st nicht gefakrlick "J- and to another acquaint-
ance of ours, a Herr Hesse, "Es ist eine Operation auf Leben and
Tod", 2 so that this poor gentleman was terribly frightened. Now

1 " It is not dangerous."

2 " It is an operation that means life or death."

331

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 of course Bismarck makes capital for himself out of these conflicting
opinions — it is decreed that it is in the interest of Germany to
make it appear as if German science had been set at naught by
me, a foreigner, and in consequence Fritz's precious life has been
lost — that I preferred a foreign " quack " to a German Professor
and high dignitary of science, and thus by my obstinacy sacrificed
Fritz's existence, whereas German science was in this case repre-
sented by a Russian (Bergmann) and by one Prof. Gerhardt, who
surely might make a mistake with the best intentions without
compromising German science. Gerhardt was only too glad, then,
that Sir Morell Mackenzie should undertake Fritz's treatment,
as he, G.: had nothing else to recommend than this operation.
If Fritz had submitted to it, he would only have done so from
ignorance of the danger, and if they had lost him, he would have
been sacrificed indeed to their recklessness! The disease took its
course! When it really began, we do not know, and of this there
is no proof! He was so well managed, so carefully nursed and
tended by Sir Morel! and Dr. Hovel!, and afterwards Leyden, that he
suffered less than others would have done. The end was hastened
and the strength to resist the disease was impaired by Bergmann's
mismanagement of the after-treatment of tracheotomy, and by the
injury he inflicted on my poor darling Fritz by so awkwardly for-
cing the tube back into its place when no force was required, only
skill and patience, and when Sir Morell was going to do it properly
himself, Bergmann snatched the canula out of Sir Morell's hands
and proceeded to do it in the most awkward and bungling way! x
He used force with another patient of his, and the man died in con-
sequence, but I do not dream of putting down his awkwardness to
German science! That is a cry got up to show how Bismarck and
"William protect all that is German and how patriotic they are, and
that a foreigner always must be wrong and an evildoer ; — this I beg
leave to say is not, and never was, the standpoint of German science,
which is strong enough in itself, and which no one ever, attacks !
Prince Bismarck's dodge is always to make the Germans think they
are going to be attacked, wronged, insulted, and their interests be-
trayed if he were not there to protect them. There are many who
are silly and ignorant and shortsighted enough to believe all this
trash, and who would sacrifice their rights and liberties and their

1 See supra, p. 308.
332

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II

prosperity if only Prince Bismarck would stay and protect them ! ! ! 1 888
From what? Against what? I really do not think they know!!
Herbert [Bismarck] would wish it to be thought that Fritz would
have been tempted to sacrifice Germany's interests, for instance,
as regards Alsace-Lorraine, or Hanover — or anything in " short *',
and that I am the serpent who always proposed such things ! ! Also
that William was too staunch a German to be capable of such
a thing!!! Is it not a shame to act such a comedy? Fritz often
defended German interests in 1866-1870, when Prince B. had lost
his courage and his nerve, but no one knows that, now that Fritz's
lips are closed!! Fritz's and Prince B.'s ideas of German interests
did not always agree!! They often did, but not always (as I said
before).

Excuse my pen running on, but I wish you to know the truth ;
people in Germany are being purposely blinded and misled! A
foreigner and a Liberal must necessarily be an enemy of Germany
— and a traitor!

On the following day the Empress again wrote to
Queen Victoria, who in her letter had written asking if
the Empress had had any indication of the seriousness of
the illness when she visited England with the Emperor
Frederick (then Crown Prince) in the preceding year for
the Jubilee celebrations. The Empress's reply ran :

You asked me in your letter whether I was alarmed this time
last year when I said goodbye to you ? Indeed I was not! I was
often very anxious, but full of hope! I knew that a malignant
disease was not proved and that what Gerhardt and Landgraf
pretended to see, or thought they could see, was not to be seen!
They made a guess as to the cause of the hoarseness, etc., which
afterwards came true, but they could not be sure! The voice
improved so much in Scotland and at Baveno before the i8th
October that I had no reason to despond, though I had always a
dread and fear of the eventuality.

I have now heard of two cases which are very similar indeed.
As for the operation, it was out of the question! Many German
doctors know and say this ; and the special wickedness of Berg-
mann is now to say to William, Henry, Charlotte and the public^

333

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 that the operation would have been a mere nothing (as he does)
and would have saved Fritz, whereas he told others it was a
matter of life and death I! But if he had been honest he would
have told us then, that there was not one case he could show of
a person who was operated for malignant disease either by laryngo-
tomy or laryngal fissure who had ever lived longer than three or four
months, and that they had all died from the effects of the operation 1
The people who are now living who have had this operation per-
formed (I have seen two) never had malignant disease, their larynxes
were injured by another cause, one from being driven over! Our
most celebrated surgeon for this operation here is Hahn (the one
who operated on Mr. Montague Williams). Hahn is very timid in
expressing an opinion and would not for the world offend Berg-
mann, who is as vindictive as he is vain and powerful, but Hahn
was horrified last year at this operation being performed! He
knows the danger, the terrible state the patient is reduced to, and
the improbability of its curing this disease, as it reappears else-
where or comes again in the same place. Moreover Hahn thought
Bergmann far too inexperienced and Fritz not a fit subject for
such an operation! The terrorism which is exercised here by the
Government makes even celebrated men like Hahn afraid to open
their mouths. I could send you a list of the cases we know
about!! . . .

Bergmann is known to be exceedingly untruthful ; he does not
care what he says, he is a thorough Russian intriguant. We should
never have had this trouble and row if we had had old Langenbeck
or Wilms!! (You know Langenbeck refused ever to perform this
operation at all, as he considered it was too great a risk for the
patient.) With Hahn or with Langenbeck we should not have had
any difficulty. Gerhardt and Bergmann were together at Wurz-
burg and one supports the other! ! How badly Prince Bismarck and
Herbert Bismarck specially have behaved in this affair, I cannot
describe! It is quite indifferent to them and yet they thought
right to chauffer German susceptibility and vanity and chauvin-
ism, to please William, to harm Fritz and me, and to excite dislike
against everything English!

They were pleased enough that our darling lived no longer,
therefore it was not out of love and devotion ! The operation
would have effectually put a stop to all chance of his succeeding
his father, and we should most likely have lost hirn directly! I

334

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM H

must do this justice to Prince Bismarck, that at the time he was 1888
quite against the operation and had the perspicacity and good sense
to see how imprudent and rash a proposal it was^ and wished all
else tried before ; but when he saw that Fritz's days were numbered
he turned round and thought he would get more advantage both
with Willy and the public from taking the other side and crying
down Sir Morell Mackenzie. And oh, it was so treacherous, mean,
false and shameful — just like those wretched people 1 and William
is in their hands!! . . .

There was now some indication that those who be-
lieved in the Empress Frederick were anxious and willing
to take up the cudgels on her behalf against the ever-
increasing number of insinuations and innuendoes. Prud-
ence and the fear of displeasing the all-powerful Bismarck
or the young and arrogant monarch, however, led many
to keep silence, but the first indication of this defensive
attitude on the part of some of her friends gave the
Empress no little satisfaction.

It was about this time, too, that the rumour went
round that the Prince of Wales, in conversation with
Count Herbert Bismarck, had stated his opinion that
Germany ought to return Hanover to the Cumberland
family and treat the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine with
greater kindliness. The new Emperor, in a speech at
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, when he unveiled the monument
to his cousin, Prince Frederick Charles, a prominent
Prussian commander in the war of 1870, showed his irrita-
tion at what the Prince of Wales was reputed to have
said, by concluding his speech with these words :

There are people who have the audacity to maintain that my
father was willing to part with what he, in conjunction with the late
Prince, gained on the battlefield. We, who knew him so well, can-
not quietly tolerate, even for a single moment, such an insult to his
memory. He assuredly cherished the same idea as we do, namely,

335

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 that nothing should be surrendered of what had been gained in
those great days. . . . On this point there can only be one opinion,
namely, that we would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and
our forty-two millions of inhabitants on the field of battle than sur-
render a single stone of what my father and Prince Frederick Charles
gained.1

After this " silly speech ", as the Empress described it in
her letter to Queen Victoria of August 25, " he turned to
General Blumenthal and said, el hope my uncle, the Prince
of Wales, will understand that' ",2 " Herbert Bismarck ",
the Empress continued, " had told William that Bertie
and Alix wanted Hanover back for Ernest of Cumber-
land and had criticised German administration in Alsace-
Lorraine ; I thought it very nasty of Herbert Bismarck."

This rumour much disturbed the Empress, and on
August 26 she wrote to her mother :

Many thanks for your dear telegram from Balmoral. I am sure
you feel reminded of last year. I send you a little article which
takes my part against the new attacks against me in the official
press. Why do the Bismarcks wish to make me responsible for what
Bertie and Alix said about Ernest of Cumberland ? I told you
yesterday they wish it to appear that I instigated Bertie and Alix,
which is most absurd, as I really hardly know what they did say.
I am sure they meant most kindly, but as it happened it has been
rather unfortunate that anything was said, as the Bismarcks use
it as a weapon against me. Not only have they represented it
so to William and caused him to make that foolish speech at
Frankfort, but they also spread it through the Norddeutsche and
Kolnische Zeitung to injure me, and it is then largely believed. I
am utterly innocent of all this, and the Liberal press of course is
not taken in, but everybody else is. It is rather silly, to talk of my
intriguing for Danish aspirations, as Fritz and I always did what
we could for Schleswig-Holstein aspirations and not Danish ones,

1 The German Emperor's Speeches, translated by Louis Elkind,
p. 17.

2 Sir Sidney Lee, Life of King Edward VII. vol. i. pp. 647-648.

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM H

and were attacked and persecuted for it in those days. One is 1888
really ashamed of such rubbish, but it all profits the Bismarcks
and William in the eyes of a widespread class in Germany. Their
superior patriotism is aired again on this occasion, and distrust
sown against me, and doubt cast on Fritz's intentions.

It is an abominable game and apparently always succeeds with
a certain set.

The truth of this rumour, as usual, was slow to see
the light of day. What had happened was this. The
Prince of Wales, who had always admired the noble aims
and integrity of the Emperor Frederick, believed, rightly
or wrongly, that he contemplated the restoration of
Alsace-Lorraine to France and of Schleswig to Denmark ;
and further understood it to be his intention to restore
to the Duke of Cumberland, who had married the
Princess of Wales's youngest sister, the private property
of the royal family of Hanover, which had been seques-
trated by Prussia after the war of 1866. It was during
the Prince of Wales's visit to Germany for the Emperor
Frederick's funeral that he asked Count Herbert Bismarck
if there was any truth in the Emperor Frederick's designs
of reparation. Count Herbert at once reported the ques-
tion to his father — the question now being transformed
into a suggestion. Not unnaturally Count Herbert's
version exasperated the new Emperor who, in his turn,
understood that the Prince of Wales had suggested that
Germany should give up all that she had won by right
of conquest during the preceding quarter of a century.

The moment this embroidered version came to the
ears of the Prince of Wales he stigmatised it as " a positive
lie". He had asked Count Herbert "whether Fritz
would have wished to give back the provinces of Alsace
and Lorraine if possible ", and Count Herbert had replied
" there was no foundation for such a rumour ", and,
2 337

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 added the Prince, "there the matter ended". OfSchleswig
and the royal family of Hanover he had spoken quite
vaguely, as he wrote to Prince Christian on April 3, 1889-1
Bismarck, however, was not disposed to let such an
opportunity slip, and the virulent campaign against the
Empress Frederick was now intensified. It was hinted
that she had incited the Prince of Wales to offend German
pride in this manner, and that when all was said and done
she was nothing but " an Englishwoman " and cared
nothing for the national aspirations and military glory of
the German Empire.2

1 Sir S. Lee, Life of King Edward VIL vol. i. pp. 647-648.

2 Die Grosse Politik^ vi. pp. 326-333.

338

CHAPTER XIII

THE WAR DIARY OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK

THE Empress Frederick was now anxious that neither 1888
she nor her late husband should be for ever under the
stigma of the abuse and criticism which continued to be
directed at her from Berlin. Already she had made some
tentative steps towards this end. A year earlier the
Emperor Frederick, on his visit to England for Queen
Victoria's Jubilee, had taken with him three boxes of
papers which he deposited for safe custody at Windsor
Castle.

Four or five months later the Emperor (then Crown
Prince) determined to send over to England the manu-
script Diary which he had compiled during the Franco-
German "War of 1870-71. The Crown Prince and Prin-
cess were then at San Remo, surrounded by servants and
officials in the pay of Prince Bismarck, and it was realised
that to attempt to send away documents by ordinary
methods would simply result in their falling into the hands
of the Chancellor. The Crown Princess, not knowing
what to do for the best, then took Dr. Hovell into her
confidence, and this shrewd and ingenious gentleman
devised a means by which the spies of Bismarck and
Prince William were eluded. For several days the three
volumes of the Diary were placed ostensibly on the table
of the principal drawing-room of the Villa Zirio, for all
the world to see, read and handle if need be. Suddenly

339

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 one night Dr. Hovell received an urgent call. Hurriedly
he packed his things, disturbing only his valet. At the
last moment, passing through the drawing-room, he took
the three volumes of the Diary and started off post-haste
to visit his mythical patient. Early next morning the hue
and cry was raised. It was known that at the best Dr.
Hovell could not get to England for two or three days,
and agents were warned to cover every route to England
which he might possibly take ; their instructions were
that by hook or crook Dr. HovelFs luggage was to be
lost — it being understood, of course, that it would eventu-
ally be found again minus the Diary. Every port and
every important railway junction en route for England was
covered, but Dr. Hovell was not traced.

On the third day Dr. Hovell returned to San Remo,
and his arrival was duly reported to Berlin, but the dis-
quieting news was added that the Diary was still miss-
ing. In point of fact it was now in England! The astute
doctor, realising that all routes to England would be care-
fully watched the moment his departure from San Remo
was reported, headed straight for Berlin — the very last
place that the emissaries of Bismarck would expect him
visit, and a route on which it was unlikely that any
watch would be kept. He arrived there in the early hours
of the morning^ and at once went to the British Embassy,
where, of course, no one was about. On being told that
he must wait an hour or two before anyone in authority
could see him, he replied that he must see the Ambassador
immediately, as his business admitted of no delay. He
was so insistent that eventually Sir Edward Malet himself
was woken up and came down in a dressing-gown to see
him. Quickly grasping the situation, the British Ambas-
sador saw the necessity of instant action, and despatched
340

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

a special messenger to London with the Diary, while Dr. 1888
Hovell returned to San Remo.

Such a procedure may seem strange, that the private
papers of the ruling house of one country should be sent
to the royal archives of another, but as the Crown
Princess wrote in her own Diary: "He (the Crown
Prince) unfortunately could not consider them in safe
custody in Berlin, and ... he regarded his papers as
being in a better place of concealment * under Mama's
care ' than in our house in Berlin." * There was a fear, a
fear well-grounded, that any papers or records of the
Emperor Frederick's might be suddenly seized and per-
haps destroyed — a proceeding which had precedent to
warrant it, and the Empress was now anxious to add to
these existing records at Windsor.

The work [she wrote on September 14, 1888] of making extracts
from my letters to you will be immense, perhaps you could find
someone else to help also ?? as Sir Th. Martin will not do. Fritz
kept a journal, I do not. His is very precious to me now. Some
day the world shall have a true picture of him and all he suffered,
but now it is much too soon. Poor darling I can hardly believe
that he was snatched from his home, carried away by this horrid
disease, in spite of his fine strong frame and wiry constitution,
in the midst of all he had to do, day after day. I live through
this last year and think how often our hopes were raised in
the midst of our doubts because he seemed to be so well and
strong in spite of his throat, and how grateful we were for each
little sign that made one think his health was not being under-
mined, until February came, and he was so mismanaged after
the tracheotomy, which made an inroad on the store of strength
and power of resistance, which would not have been so tried if
only Sir Morell Mackenzie and Dr. Hovell had had him in their
own hands. Their patient was completely snatched out of their

1 Foreword to The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick HI.
p. v.

341

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 hands, and I never saw such bungling treatment or such obstinacy
as Bergmann's, Bramann's, and Schrader's — it was enough to send
one mad.

Sir Morel! showed an amount of patience and good temper
which was quite extraordinary under these most trying circum-
stances, but only for Fritz's and my sake ; as he would have gone
away directly from another patient seeing the case taken out of
his hands and utterly mismanaged. I implored him to stay. I had
no confidence at all in these other gentlemen, but I tried not to
show it so as not to upset Fritz and make him lose faith in the
doctors about him, but it was difficult enough, as he had very
little confidence in them and only liked Sir Morell to touch him
— with his light, gentle, dexterous fingers. It annoyed Fritz to
have so many around him, but he bore it out of civility and
courtesy and with angelic patience. I felt miserable because I
could not help seeing that we were losing ground and time, by
their not understanding the canula and not stopping the bleeding ;
which weakened Fritz so terribly and distressed him so much.
Sir Morell succeeded in stopping the bleeding when the others
were gone and had left off interfering. What an agony of anxiety
I was in, I cannot forget, and how these spiteful creatures used to
misrepresent everything purposely to William, Henry and Char-
lotte and intrigue with the Aides-de-Camp, and write and tele-
graph to Bismarck and Stallberg behind our back. It was too
bad, and I who had to smother everything down, so that Fritz
should not be angry or irritated, and yet not keep him in ignorance
completely of the game they were playing, so that he might be
able to defend himself-— and not fall completely into their hands!
May I never meet any of these creatures again, I do not think I
could look at them. Of course poor little Schrader did it all for
the best and in the innocence of his heart; he is devotedly attached
to us, and I have remained on the best terms with the litde man,
also with poor old Wegner. Forgive my alluding to all this
again. It haunts one night and day. That Fritz's mind was kept
easy and his spirits tolerably good was due to Sir MorelPs untiring
efforts alone, and enabled me to get along and do what I could,
or really I should have been utterly crushed and trampled under
foot by the daring audacious intrigues and attacks of those who
opposed us! Thank God darling Fritz never knew what I went
through! He used to ask with the greatest surprise, "Warum
342

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

sind deine Augen so rot?931 It is all over now, but one cannot 1888
forget it! It was so unnecessary! There was sorrow enough
without it all! But people were not only and always purposely
bad ! They were very stupid and ignorant, did not and could not
understand, were misguided and misled, which made them lose
their heads, and behave so strangely.

It was about this time that in accordance with a decree
of the new Kaiser William IL, concerning the unsealing
and inspection of the Emperor Frederick's literary re-
mains, the widowed Empress asked Queen Victoria to
return to her from Windsor the three boxes which had
been deposited there in the preceding year. A thorough
inspection of these was made by German ministers of the
crown appointed for the purpose, and a selection of the
papers was deposited in the domestic archives at Berlin,
including the four successive manuscript editions of the
Emperor Frederick's War Diary during the Franco-
German War of 1 870-71. 2

Years before this, in 1873, one of the most trusted
advisers of the Emperor Frederick — Professor Heinrich
Geffcken, a German diplomatist and jurist — had had
access to the Diary. Now, in August 1888, Geffcken
prepared for the press a series of extracts from the Diary
— in all, less than twenty pages, and in the October
number of the Deutsche Rundschau (published late in
September) these were given to the world. The publica-
tion created a furore on account of the frankness of the
diarist and the way in which he showed how Bismarck
had wrongly arrogated to himself some of the credit for
the creation of the German Empire which should have
gone to the Crown Prince.

1 Why are your eyes so red ?

2 The War Diary of the Emperor Frederick^ Foreword, p. vi.

343

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 A few days after the publication the Empress Frederick
wrote to Queen Victoria :

The Marmor Palais and Berlin are in a state of fury and excite-
ment about the publication of Fritz's TagebucL It does not suit
the " powers that be " at all of course. William was in a rage
and called it " high treason " and theft of State papers! Of course
this is nonsense! I was much surprised and also annoyed at the
publication which is extremely injudicious and indiscreet! Of
course it is all true, and all these portions of the public who are
unbiased and devoted to Fritz are delighted, especially the Liberal
press of which I send you a little sample. The part that Fritz
played at Versailles in Jan. 1871 is of course not known by the
public!! The German Empire is supposed to have been called
into existence by the Emperor William and Bismarck — whereas it
was Fritz who got it done! Therefore this comes in the light of a
revelation! I cannot imagine how it got into the Rundschau. Fritz
had several copies lithographed and gave them to his more inti-
mate friends (I think he gave you one also ?). One of these copies
must have been seen by the person who wrote the article in the
Rundschau. Everyone now thinks I have done this and to play
Prince Bismarck a trick to revenge myself, etc. Of course, this
is all a mischievous lie! in order to excite his party, William, etc.,
against me.

The article was evidently put in by somebody with the best
intentions, but it reminded me of the story of " Meyer " at
Windsor in 1848 — publishing a poem, signed "A" — so that
everyone thought dear Papa had written it! Do you remember ?
I was advised to put a denial into the newspapers, that I had any-
thing to do with the publication — this I refused to do! I was
also advised to write in the same sense to Prince Bismarck, which
I also refused. But I have sent him word that I could not under-
stand who could have published this, and that it appeared to
me a want of tact and judgment to print what partook of a
private and intimate character while the people named in the book
were alive.

Here is another pamphlet about Fritz's illness, which is good
and fair.

Our weather is very fine, I am sadder than ever, worn, worried
and badgered. The sum that Fritz wanted me to have to buy

344

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

myself a place, and which they had as good as promised me in 1888
June, I am not going to have. The Haus Mmisterium say the
Crown cannot afford it William did not even say he regretted it
and seemed to think it quite natural! I am glad in one way, as the
less I am under obligations to the present system the better pleased
I am ; independence is a grand thing.

Two days later, on September 26, 1888, she wrote :

Alas, the evil passions are all abroad (of the Govt. and Bismarck
party) and their violence is untold! This publication utterly in-
furiates them. Where it was got from, what it is, I do not know!
I possess nothing of the kind in my papers, and yet every word is
true, and the facts are correct, — die writing seems to be Fritz's
own, they are his words and opinions, but I never saw them put
together in this form !

An outburst of delight from the public has been followed by an
outburst of fury from William, who bitterly criticised his Papa to
me, and said how could he write such imprudent things down, etc.
I only thought to myself how deeply is William to be pitied for
so little understanding his Father. The vile Post, a Government
paper, draws a simile between Fritz and the Emperor Joseph of
Austria, saying that the latter had been a failure, and implying
what a blessing it was for Germany that Fritz had not reigned
longer as his principles must have led to a failure!! These are the
sentiments and this is the language which has been held during
30 years, but especially during the two last, in government, court,
society, and Berlin military circles, with which our three eldest chil-
dren have been imbued. By nature they do not understand politics,
nor do they care about them ; they only join the general cry of
the circles in which they move, and support William with all the
roughness and violence of his disposition. They were so completely
in the hands of the " clique " that Fritz found it impossible to
let them into his complete confidence, as they did not keep things
to themselves, and it was easy for others de lew tirer Us vers
du ne%. We looked forward to a time when "authority" — to
which William and Henry were always ready to bow — would be
represented by him alone, and they then be more disposed to enter
into their father's views, and it would no longer have been danger-
ous to enlighten them! This time, alas! has never come, and the

345

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 golden opportunity for influencing these young people has been
snatched out of our hands. May they never have to learn by
stern experience the truth of what their father and their mother
would so gladly have told them.

This publication is not apocryphal — but how it has come out
is impossible to say. G. von Normann is dead and Krug, who
often acted as clerk and copied for Fritz, is dead tool It has been
put in by some friend — anxious to do honour to Fritz's memory,
which it does ! but not considering that many things in this publica-
tion are calculated to embitter my enemies and expose me to still
more unkindness than I have come in for already.

I send you a horrid article from the Post and two nice ones from
a Liberal paper and I also send you the original publication in the
Rundschau in case you have it not already! . . .

I am indeed blessed [she added] in having so kind and dear a
Mother to whom I can pour out my bitter sorrows and speak of
my many trials, and am truly grateful for this mercy.

Bismarck, after much cogitation, decided that the best
way of countering the revelations in the Diary was by
treating it as a forgery. " As you will have seen from
what you have read ", he told Busch about this period,
" we must first treat it as a forgery, a point of view from
which a great deal may be said. Then, when it is proved
genuine by the production of the original, it can be dealt
with further in another way." Busch then asked the
Chancellor if he had spoken to the Emperor on the sub-
ject, " and he replied in the affirmative, saying * He was
quite in a rage and wishes to have strong measures taken
against the publication * *'.1 From this admission it is
evident that both the Chancellor and the new Emperor
knew that the Diary was genuine, but the world had not
yet learnt that to these two, and to Bismarck especially, all
weapons were of equal value when it came to diminishing
the prestige or fame of the dead Emperor or his surviving

1 Busch's Bismarck, pp. 194-195.
346

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

spouse. On September 27, the Empress, who was about 1888
to leave her beloved Friedrichskron for ever, wrote to
Queen Victoria :

The Diary Is perfectly and completely genuine, word for word,
and I now know where the original is. It is in the archives of the
Haus Ministerium, and was among the papers I gave up! Of course
it was not my intention to give it up ; I thought it was purely
military, and had not read it. On the one hand I am now terrified
that if William hears where it is he will have it burnt because
Prince Bismarck has officially said it is " apocryphal ". On the
other hand, there is no better proof for my enemies that I had
nothing to do with the publication. But who has done it ? and
to whom could Fritz ever have lent it ? This I do not know. . . .
The Conservative party here think it is the grandest thing Prince
Bismarck ever did to deny the authenticity of this diary. It is
very possible he did it bonafde. . . .

Leaving this (Friedrichskron) is an agony to me. I seem to
hear my darling's voice everywhere — see him, etc., and feel as if
he were so near — here, or coming soon. In another place it can
never be the same, and yet I cannot continue to live here as I did.
I am more miserable than I can say.

The new Emperor was now fast acquiring a reputation
for pageantry and military demonstrations, and his rapid
sequence of journeys early in his reign to the courts of
St. Petersburg, Vienna and Rome led the wits of Berlin
to contrast the three German Emperors as " Der Greise
Kaiser, der Weise Kaiser, und der Reise Kaiser ".* On
September 28 the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria :

. . . You can imagine how it pains me to think of William's
renewed journeys to so many courts, and of all the receptions in
Italy, a country to which we were so much attached and for which
he does not care. Since our terrible loss not two days have been
devoted to mourning, or to quiet, or a little care to his mother 1

1 The " white-haired Emperor ", " the wise Emperor ", and
" the travelling Emperor ".

347

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 It has been one whirl of visits, receptions, dinners, journeys,
parades, manoeuvres, shooting and entertaining. Of course it jars
on my feelings, and I have to get accustomed to be a person who
is not considered or remembered by the present regime, and I
find it rather hard.

Leaving Friedrichskron is too terrible! ... No more to be
able to go into Fritz's sitting room, or dressing room, all just as
they used to be, and never again to go into the room where he
closed his eyes for ever seems so very hard. Yet many a widow
has gone through the same. I always have a feeling that he would
have wished me to stay in the house which was so dear to him,
and guard the sacred spot where he died, but I know it cannot be.
... It is perhaps unreasonable and absurd to complain like this,
but I can hardly tear myself away from what has been our Home
for thirty years without a bitter pang. . . .

I hope to hear that the place near Cronberg is secured in a few
days, and then I shall set the architect and gardener to work, and
shall hope to show it to you some day. It will be two years before
I can get into it, alas !

Meanwhile, Bismarck, after the most thorough in-
vestigation, had learnt that Professor Geffcken had been
responsible for the publication of the extracts from the
Emperor Frederick's War Diary. He now decided to
admit that the Diary was genuine, but further decided to
prosecute the unfortunate Professor for " high treason "1
On September 29 (the anniversary of her betrothal) the
Empress wrote to Queen Victoria :

This is our dear ITerlolwigstag thirty-two years ago. Oh how
it wrings my heart! How I pine and long for him, and for his
kind words and looks, and for a kiss I! It is all gone and over.
Day by day I feel more lonely and unprotected. No one to lean
on and the difficulties I have to face alone are really too terrible.
Yesterday I felt very near putting an end to myself 1 So many
loving thanks for your dear letter by messenger, and for Sir
Theodore Martin's letter! You can imagine how indignant I feel
at the tone in which the Government and Bismarck papers dare
to speak of Fritz and of his Diary. It is not uberarbeitety there is

348

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

not a word that is not his very own and in his own dear writing. 1888
Of course it ought not to have been published without my per-
mission and not now. It was done with a good intention, and the
public are delighted ! The facts, long known to me and which now
leak out, are of course odious to the government and Bismarck
party, and the opinions which Fritz so modestly and simply puts
forth are of course " gall and wormwood " to them, as they are
the very principles they have been treading and trampling down,
and holding up to opprobrium for twenty years, calumniating and
persecuting each individual who dared to uphold them. Now this
party try to cast doubt, contempt and ridicule on Fritz's word
and on his character, which makes me feel quite savage! They
may attack and run me down as much as they like. I have nothing
to lose, they have done all they could, but that they should venture
to attack him when he is no longer there to defend himself, is
mean, cowardly, ungrateful and abominable.

I want the Tageluck back. I am so afraid William and
Bismarck will order it to be burnt, and it is such a valuable and
precious record of the real truth of things, that if they do that, I
do not see how I can ever be on a footing of peace with them
again!

It is really too much to bear all at once. I do not mind the
truth being known in England.

I have not published this Diary, nor had anything to do with
it! I fear it was Dr. Geffcken who did it, — it was imprudent and
indiscreet, but I will stand up for every word that is said. Mischke,
Blumenthal, Stosch and many others can testify to the absolute
historical truth of all it contains, but I certainly should not ask
them to come forward, as they and all our friends are suspects to
the government and might be treated & VArnim. Oh dear, it is
all so sad and so complicated! My fate is to be trodden down and
ill used now they have nothing to fear from me, and I shall never
find redress anywhere. . . .

These are tie last lines I shall ever write to you from this dear
house of such sacred memories to me, where his cradle and coffin
stood, where he opened his dear eyes on this world, and where he
closed them, with a soul as pure as a child. This page of my life
closes here, and with bitter tears the new one begins.

The news has arrived that the purchase of the Villa Reiss is
concluded, and now it is mine! Somehow or other I feel keen

349

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 about it no more. Perhaps I shall begin to care again, but just
now I am too wretched and miserable, and feel as if I could not
rise any more from under the load of sorrow which oppresses
me. . . .

Three days later (October 2) she again wrote :

No doubt it was a foolish thing to do to publish that Diary,
and that certainly it was not an opportune moment! How poor
old Geffcken got hold of it I do not know, but you know he is a
good soul and meant no harm, and was devoted to Fritz! The
way Bismarck has behaved and how the matter has been treated is
simply disgraceful, much, much worse than the indiscretion and
the want of tact in publishing the diary! They have now arrested
GefFckenl It will create an immense sensation, and will make the
Government profoundly unpopular, though not so much, I fear,
as it deserves! These arbitrary acts of high-handed despotism seem
to go down with the people of Berlin in the most extraordi-
nary way! The " Party " are of course exultant and triumphant.
" Brutality *' in every shape and form is what they admire, practise
and preach.

The feeling of love for Fritz is very strong in the nation, and
it is with indignation that all right-thinking people read what B.
has written in his report and feel that I too have again been insulted.

The resounding scandal and embittered controversy
caused by the publication of the extracts from the
Diary now seemed to be approaching their zenith.
Once again the Empress had the agony of seeing many
whom she had counted as her friends ranged against
her. Even some of her own family were in the oppo-
site camp, but it must be admitted that she at times
hardly made allowances for the difficult position in which
they were placed. They were not in a position to know
the inner details of the dispute, and yet, if they took her
side, they ran the risk of affronting not only the omni-
potent Bismarck, but also the Emperor William II. As
the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria on October n :
350

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

There is not a doubt that Bismarck only puffs up GefFcken's 1888
misdeed of publishing this Diary as much as he can, in order to
be able to strike a blow and terrorise all people who might be
inclined to speak a word of truth and to raise their voices for
Fritz and for me! Bismarck's fear is that anything about the
Regency which the " Party " worked so hard to obtain might
leak out, and it is to strike terror into the press that he makes this
row for fear of any revelations which might be disagreeable to
himself! All must be done to raise William on a pinnacle, because
he is Bismarck's pedestal, which Fritz would never have stooped
to be! So Fritz must be diminished in the eyes of the nation, and
I must be calumniated, accused, vilified, because being Fritz's
widow, the love the people had for him is still too warm for me !
I must not be left a leg to stand on. I must be made to leave
the place or to remain an object of distrust and dislike. This is
not very agreeable to bear! Independent people are silent, cowed
into holding their tongues. The whole machinery of the press is
in Bismarck's hands — in Berlin alone the Government employe's
are 33,000 people ; all of these have no other opinion than what he
orders them to have! Caprice, tyranny and despotism are rampant.
It is very sad indeed. When will reaction against this intolerable
state of things come, and of what nature will it be ?

William allows his Father and me to be insulted and attacked,
and sanctions it! I try to be patient and resigned and remember that
silence is most dignified. Fritz of Baden, Louise and the Empress
Augusta are on Bismarck's side. Fritz of Baden especially has com-
pletely changed in politics, and sails with William. It is his interest
to do so. Louise is the only one who at least feels and understands
my position. Charlotte has shewn neither tact nor feeling the whole
time! She now fawns on William and has gone to Rome to see
his arrival, etc., which, considering our mourning, has hurt my
feelings very much! The first thing William did at Vienna was to
receive Prof. Schrotter, who did not behave well to Fritz, as you
know.

I hear that already all the oflicial papers have their articles
against Sir M. Mackenzie ready written, by order from the
Wilhelmstrasse.

You do not know all I have to endure. Good little Dr. Delbriick
said yesterday if our darling Waldie were alive and 21 now he
would call anyone out, the Chancellor himself, if disrespect were

351

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 shown to his parents. I am sure he would, he was so staunch and
so affectionate. Seeing my sons side with our enemies makes me
guess what Caesar felt when Brutus stabbed him.

The following day she wrote :

You may be quite certain that I shall patiently endure all per-
secution, and not stir! I must say — I felt strongly inclined to pro-
secute Prince Bismarck for libel and go to law. But it is not proper
in such deep mourning so to come before the public and possibly
the Staatsanwdt (Procurator-General) would have refused to pro-
secute! Then that would have been a second insult to me!

What am I to think and feel when I see my own son approve
of and encourage the insults to his father's memory and his
mother's reputation! He is either too lazy and careless, or he does
not understand, or he intends to break the 5th Commandment,
or he is so blunt of perception and so blind — in his prejudices —
that he does not understand how disgraceful is the part he has
played, is playing, or is made to play!! He has had a long and
careful training and preparation in the Bismarck atmosphere, so
that his sense of right and wrong, of gratitude, chivalry, respect,
affection for his parents and pity for those who are so stricken
has been thoroughly destroyed! It well-nigh broke Fritz's heart,
when he saw how his sons were having their minds warped
and their judgment and opinions perverted. They were young,
easily caught — and their Grandparents contributed largely to this
result! . . .

The Villa Liegnitz at Potsdam they have asked me to give up,
as they want it for William's gentlemen ! I have nothing at Potsdam
now, except my little Bornstedt, Le. a few litde rooms there. I
can sleep at the Stadt Schloss at Potsdam if I like, but must ask
for permission each time, which, of course, I shall avoid! Con-
sideration for me and my feelings has been so completely set aside,
that the less I come across the present court the better ; especially
as I am afraid I could not promise yet always to keep my temper
under so much provocation, and I do not want to give them the
satisfaction of seeing how much they annoy me.

Whilst the quarrel over the Diary was still raging,
another publication led to a further embitterment between
352

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

the Empress and those who sought every possible oppor- 1888
tunity of vilifying her and her dead husband.

On October 15 there was published by Sir Morell
Mackenzie a small volume entitled The Fatal Illness of
Frederick the Nolle, which gave his account of the
Emperor's illness and death. Had he kept to the medical
issues involved, the resulting controversy might not
have been so bitter, but he went out of his way to
prove that the German doctors were incompetent and
that their maltreatment of the patient had hastened his
death. A few days earlier the Empress had written :

I send some interesting newspaper cuttings. You will see a
letter from me to Sir Morell Mackenzie in the newspapers. He has
not published it, nor has he anything to do with it! I am glad it
found its way into print, as it will clear up the one point on which
he is so much attacked here, — that he purposely ignored or out
of stupidity failed to recognise the nature of the illness.

And now, on October 20, she wrote :

I have felt almost distracted these last few days ! As time goes on
it is so difficult to bear the constant longing which gnaws at one's
heart with patience, and yet one cannot make it cease I Every sort of
annoyance about Geffcken and about Sir MorelPs book continues to
worry me! Some of my best friends think it is a plan of the Bismarck
and Government party, and perhaps of himself, to try and exasperate
me so that I may leave the country altogether in disgust and return
no more! They are every day on the look out for some reproach
to make, or to try and put me dans mon tort. You saw die vile
tone and calumnies in Bismarck's immediat Bericht. Some say I
ought not to let it pass, but ought to remonstrate with him
and William! This would be of no earthly use. Bismarck would
laugh and answer civilly or with a fresh pack of lies, and the official
press would be hounded on again. William does not read letters, —
if they are unpleasant to him he tosses them on one side! He does
not see or feel what is an insult or injury to his parents, and does
not think it worth while to trouble about it; — to get on easily
and undisturbed with the Chancellor, to do exactly what he pleases
2A 353

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 with as little bother as possible is all he cares about. His Mama
is a consideration he never dreams of remembering! As Prince
Bismarck and Herbert know this very well, they become more and
more daring, as they know and feel that against my darling Fritz,
against me and mine, they may say, write, print, do what they like
with complete impunity! I have no one here to defend or advise
me!! The two men on whom I ought to be able to rely are Min.
Friedberg and the Haus Minister, but they are servants of the
state, of William and Bismarck, and have neither the interest nor
the courage to defend me where I am wronged,

I have only my sense of right, my good conscience, and the
affection of many sections of the public and the Liberals to rely
on — nothing else! For all that, I shall not allow myself to be
driven away from Germany, nor shall I abandon those who are
true to beloved Fritz's memory and principles.

My Household are, with the sole exception of Ct. Seckendorfl,
all in the other Camp, though they are very nice to me and Ctss.
Briihl does all she can to show her sympathy for me now! Still
all these important subjects I can never mention before them.
They think everything right that is done at court and by the
Government, and Bismarck is the first consideration!

The Empress Frederick was fortunate enough to have
among her suite a certain number of very clear-headed
and high-minded people. Although they were devoted to
her and sympathised with her in all her difficulties, their
devotion did not blind them to the fact that the persecu-
tions which she had undergone often made her suspect
a slight when no slight was intended. Like true friends
they never hesitated to tell her frankly what they thought,
although it must often have been difficult to do so with-
out giving the impression that they were not wholly on
her side.

There was Countess von Briihl, who had been many
years with her ; Count von Seckendorff, her secretary,
who was a great art connoisseur and who had been with
her ever since the Franco-German War ; Countess Per-
354

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

poncher Sedlnitsky who, although appointed since the 1888
Emperor Frederick's death, was her constant companion
and friend ; and Baron von Reischach, a man of great
ability and reputed to be the best judge of a horse in
Europe. At one time it was thought that he would be
appointed German ambassador in London, but he re-
mained with the Empress till her death and was later ap-
pointed Master of the Horse to the Emperor William II.,
when he succeeded in bringing the royal stables in Berlin
to a height of perfection hitherto unknown in Germany.

The sale of Morell Mackenzie's book was now tem-
porarily prohibited in Germany, and Mackenzie, by way
of a riposte, secured the stoppage of the sale in England
of the German surgeons* report of the case.

The Emperor William II. during this period had taken
up the attitude that both the publication of the extracts
from the Crown Prince's Diary and Sir Morell Mac-
kenzie's book had been instigated by the ex-Empress,
and he appeared to be willing to accept any version of
these affairs rather than his mother's. There was indeed
good reason for the Empress to write to Queen Victoria
on October 30 :

Here things are most unsatisfactory ; something new, painful
and disagreeable and serious turns up every day! "W. made a
most ill-judged and mal place speech to the Ober Burgermeister
and Town Council when they came to congratulate him on his
return. He was very rude to them, which made a painful im-
pression. He has not come near me yet, so I have at last sent him
word that I wish to see him, and I will try and speak to him on
all these different matters. They say he is full of rage and distrust
against me, as he still insists on believing that I had allowed the
publication of his father's diary and that people had access to it
in England 1 One can make him believe anything, except the truth 1 !
The more fantastic it is, the more unlikely, the more ready he is

355

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 to believe it. Instead of suspecting the bad people that surround
him and take a pleasure in maligning me and exciting him against
me, he distrusts his own Mama! It is really too hard upon me!
It has been growing steadily for two or three years, but his Papa
was there, and he did not dare carry it to the extreme he now does.
G. v. K(essel), with a wickedness and audacity I could hardly have
credited even in him, now swears on his Dienstetd that the cypher
(which he found in his table drawer the other day) was not there
when he last looked, and insinuates that it has been put there by
someone in this house!! Is it not too bad? He was careless,
forgetful and untidy^ and the whole time I thought it must be
amongst his things and said so, and said it was sure to come to
light ; but "William preferred the cock-and-bull story I wrote to
you before and which K. spread about everywhere. Now he does
not like to own it was his own fault, so he invents this in order to
cast blame and suspicion on others!

Some letters of our dear Roggenbach were found amongst
GefFcken's papers ; as they were old friends they corresponded
together! Roggenbach is now at Bonn. Since he has been there
the Police have broken into his home — at " Schopfheim " in the
Grand Duchy of Baden — with orders from here, — broken open
the drawers of his writing tables and ransacked all his papers ! !
These things are allowed and sanctioned by William against his
Father's most trusted and oldest friends! !!

The Police have by Bismarck's order a list of all people who
were Fritz's friends or mine, or our habitues, or in any way
connected with us, both ladies and gentlemen, even innocent
Frau v. Stockmar, and we hear that the houses of all our friends
are going to be searched! What for and with what intentions no
one can tell, for besides its being disgraceful and shameful, it is
exceedingly silly. Prince Bismarck wishes to strike terror and
show that if anyone dares to have been friends with" the Emperor
Frederick or with me, they must be held up to the public as dan-
gerous, as intriguants, as enemies to Germany and the Empire!!
and liable to be put in prison!

Meanwhile Geffcken had been put on his trial for
high treason, but the prosecution was soon abandoned.
Bismarck, however, now took the opportunity to make

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

a report to the young Emperor in which he questioned 1888
or denied the accuracy of a number of the statements in
the Diary and made a venomous attack on the author,
endeavouring in every way to belittle the prestige of the
Emperor Frederick, and to expose and disparage his
political liberalism.

A great call now was made for the publication of the
entire Diary, but the late Emperor had left strict injunc-
tions that it should not be published until i$22.1 On
November 2, 1888, the Empress Frederick wrote to
Queen Victoria :

Prince Bismarck has instigated the publication of a pamphlet, in
order to contradict, as it were, all that Fritz says in his diary. He
wishes it to appear to the German nation, that you and our family
were always the most dangerous enemy of Germany, and that
Fritz, under my pernicious and dangerous influence, had made
himself the tool of this policy.

Prince Bismarck, his clique, the government and society here (with
few exceptions) are bent on tearing down beloved Fritz's memory,
which is idolised by the people, and on proving that he would
have been a danger for Germany, that he would not have pro-
tected her interests and that his Liberal ideas, his sympathisers and
his friends, would have been the ruin of the State I I, being Fritz's
widow and your daughter, must be held up to suspicion in the
eyes of the public. All I do, even now in my solitary and retired
existence, is criticised, misrepresented, etc. How far this nonsense
is carried may be illustrated by the fact that Bernhard 2 goes about
saying he hopes they will not let me go to England, as I only
want to intrigue against the German Government 1 It is not sur-
prising of him as he was always a mad chauviniste, but it is not
kind as a son-in-law on whom I lavish much affection and kindness
and who was much more devoted to beloved Fritz than his own
sons were I It only shows you how the talk and the unhindered

1 For full text see The Diary of the Emperor Frederick? translated
by A. R. Allinson, MJL

2 Her son-in-law, Prince Bernard of Saxe-Meiningen.

357

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 efforts and workings of that clique blind people's judgment even
against their own better feelings 1 There is nothing to be done
now, but to bear it ; I share the fate of all our friends, all the best,
most experienced and enlightened patriots who would have been
our support and help. War to the knife is waged against them all,
with the most unheard-of and unjustifiable means!

It is now a struggle for Prince Bismarck's power to shake off all
obligations and fetters which might be a gene — to those belong
Fritz's memory and my person 1 I must be run down and annihil-
ated, as I am a relic of that fabric of hopes and plans he wishes to
destroy once and for all! He fears that William might some day
fall under my influence and therefore this must be prevented in
time by making me out a danger to the state and an enemy to the
Government.

It is very sad, not for me alone, but for poor Germany, Fritz's
beloved country.

If this mad dance is carried too far, and I see nothing to stop
them, there will be internal troubles of no small magnitude and
no short duration. The phrase one hears again and again among
the people is " Wir meinen es sekr gut, aber wir lassen uns nicht
knechten ". l

The town of Berlin is very independent and after they have
given such touching proofs of their loyalty and made such sacrifices
to prove it, Le. spent such sums on decorating the town for the
Emperor W/s funeral, given me such a fine gift (N.B. At which
William is quite furious, and says his permission ought to have
been asked) and now offered William a beautiful and very expensive
fountain he admired, to be put up before his windows, they will
not brook such rudeness and such treatment as they experienced
at William's hands the other day.

Bismarck could not have a better tool than William. He has
carefully had him prepared by his own son Herbert for two years.
All other voices and views are excluded. W. reads only the papers
prepared for him, does not understand or care for all the difficult
and intricate questions of internal Government and is utterly
ignorant of social, industrial, agricultural, commercial and financial
questions, etc., only occupied with military things, with a little
smattering of foreign affairs, and constantly being f£ted, travelling

1 We mean very well, but we won't become slaves.

358

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

about, having dinners, receptions, etc. Bismarck wishes his head to 1 888
be thoroughly turned, his vanity and pride to be still greater than
they are already, and then he will of course dash into anything they
may propose. It is sad indeed for rne as a mother, but it is not
surprising. The clique supported by the Emperor William and
the Empress Augusta (who both meant no harm and thought they
were right) have brought this about and we could not prevent it.
Fritz saw it all and it broke his heart, and I am sure the mental
worry and distress predisposed him to this disease, which was then
developed by Gerhardt and Bergmann's rough treatment! Oh,
what a tragedy it all is !

Of course it must be our endeavour that the relations of England
and Germany should not suffer in spite of Prince Bismarck's
wickedness and William's folly. You and dear Bertie and I and
your Ministers will do all that is possible to keep everything on
the best footing, but still I hope that this state of things is not
ignored in England, and that all the sorrows and sufferings of your
daughter are known, as well as their sources and reasons.

England under Lord Salisbury has shown a patience and caution
and courtesy towards the German Government which are truly
admirable. The English press has been fair and moderate in its
estimation of the present state of things ; its affection and praise
of our beloved Darling would only be looked upon with anger
and suspicion, by the Government. You and yours have always
showered attentions, civilities, generosities, etc., on the German
Court, and you know that the German unbiased public love and
admire you and dear Papa, and you saw how well they received
you in Spring.

The B. party hold the following language, " We mean to show
England that we do not want her — we must break up the connec-
tion between the English Royal Family and Germany ".

You know that I have no blind hatred or prejudice against
Prince Bismarck, that I have tried hard to get on with him, and
be as civil as I could. I have always given him his due and also
taken his part where I thought he was misunderstood or his
notions mistrusted when they were good and honest ones.

Fritz and I were intensely anxious not only that the Govern-
ment and Ministers should get on smoothly and well, but that the
two nations should understand each other, and sympathise in
common aims and interests and that they should work hand in

359

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 hand, assisting each other in the cause of true culture, civilisation
and progress ! We hoped that the bonds of affection and confidence
between the reigning families so closely allied by such sacred ties
would grow stronger and stronger. Fritz considered himself the
representative not only of his family tradition, but of beloved
Papa's ideas — how he loved you and how he loved Bertie more
and more every year!

Fritz did not need Bismarck and his diplomatic band to keep
up good relations with other Powers I He possessed the friendship
and confidence of the rulers, and the sympathies of their people!
This alwayswas gall and wormwood to Bismarck, who feared a rival
in prestige, and would have had to do Fritz's bidding if Fritz had
been well and could have enforced his will Bismarck was quite
nice and tractable when you were here, because he thought Fritz's
life might be prolonged for another year, but the moment he saw
on the i ith and i3th June that this would not be, he turned against
us and thought to free himself from everything that could possibly
give him the least trouble! His pupil and present Sovereign has
neither scruples nor conscience to stick at anything, so they go on
hitting out right and left, offending everyone all round (except
Russia) and trying to crush and annihilate all that is in any way
Liberal, or independent or cosmopolitan. Alas, I do not exaggerate,
I merely relate what is history and what is no use cloaking! With
the younger generation there is no use talking, reasoning or ex-
postulating. We older ones of steadier heads and longer experience
must maintain a prudent and dignified silence, until such time
comes as we can speak with effect. I am not actuated by a feel-
ing of revenge or bitterness. I can afford to forgive " them that
trespass against us ", but in my deep unspeakable sorrow, I grieve
to see so much that is so low and so bad! So much falseness and
cruel ingratitude and such utter reckless folly and ignorance. I can
but stand aloof and pray God to take pity on me and my three
girls, on this country and on Us horadtes gens in general.

So many thanks for your very dear letter of the 30th, which was
such a comfort to me! I have had a very dear letter from dear
Bertie! Of course I had no idea of what happened at Vienna.1 I

1 Both the Prince of Wales and the Emperor William II. were
due to visit Vienna early in October 1888, and on August 15 the
Prince wrote to his nephew that he would be glad to meet him
360

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

am so ashamed and so indignant. Any want of respect or gratitude 1888
or courtesy to Bertie from a son of mine I resent most deeply, as
he has been the very kindest of Uncles to all my children. Here
Bertie was blamed for having left Vienna, in order not to see
William, and to be purposely uncivil to him! Of course I know
this was not and could not be, but was far from guessing that it
was the other way round! I am quite disgusted and feel it more
than any rudeness to me, as, alas, I am used to that.

Pray excuse this unusually long letter. If it seems opportune
and desirable I wish you would let dear Bertie see it. ...

William considers any public mention of his father's name or
mine an offence to him! So have they succeeded in working him
up and stuffing his head full of rubbish — mingling flattery with
accusations against his parents — il gole tout because he is so green
and so suspicious and prejudiced!!

This letter from the Empress Frederick shocked and
distressed her mother. Queen Victoria, who was now
nearing her seventieth birthday, and the aged Queen
endeavoured to find some means of reconciling not only
her son, the Prince of Wales, with the new Emperor,
but also her daughter. Her letter of the 6th brought the
following reply four days later :

I thought you would be shocked and distressed at all that has
been going on here ! It is indeed terrible for me! William does not
mean to distress and wound me as he does, I daresay, but it makes
it none the less hard to bear. He has so little feeling himself that
he does not know other people have, and that a want of respect,
courtesy, consideration and fairness, coming from him is an offence
and keenly felt! More disagreeable things than I have written have
taken place, but I hope the Haus Minister, who is very calm and

under the Austrian Emperor's roof. William EL, making no reply
direct, promptly stipulated to the Emperor Francis Joseph that no
other royal guest should dim the glory of his own stay in Vienna.
The Prince of Wales tactfully avoided any contretemps by visiting
the King and Queen of Roumania at Sinaia during the German
Emperor's visit to Vienna.

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1888 quiet and most anxious for peace and harmony, and to whom I
spoke for two hours yesterday, will be able to smooth matters down
a little.

It was very kind of you and of Bertie to keep from me all that
had happened at Vienna, and I hope Sir Edward Malet knows the
rights of it and also Bertie's feelings and will be able to give them
expression if possible. I feel so ashamed when I think how little
William knows how to behave, and so angry with the people who
admire this Rucksicktslosigkeit and autocratic behaviour, this utter
want of consideration for others I Alas, he is exceedingly dependent
on those around him in his judgment and opinions, and I know
them too well to hope that he can improve at present. He is
considered the right and real representant of his Grandfather's view
and Prince Bismarck's policy, and is much elated at this. Much
flattery is poured upon him, so he never doubts that all he does
and thinks is perfect, and there is no counterbalance or moderating
influence in his wife that I can see! She quite approves the present
system, gives it her full support and is very happy. He never for
one moment remembers that whatever popularity he may have in
other circles, except the official ones, is due to his being his own
dear father's son, and that it is hoped that through being my son
and your and Papa's grandson, the antediluvian and autocratic ideas
of most of the Hohenzollerns will be modified by a wider, more
humane, liberal, tolerant and moderate spirit. There are many
who imagine that this will and must be the easel I, alas, do not ;
as he is too obstinate and also as the people who might influence
him in the right direction are either totally unknown to him or
have no means of approaching him, and his whole mode of thought
is so completely different that he would never read or understand
or study anything which could open his eyes. He has never
travelled and he has not one eminent man as a friend — as we, I
am happy to say, had so many. My influence has been purposely
and ingeniously destroyed and counteracted 1 Fritz's entreaties
were systematically put on one side.

The words with which the [old] Emperor William told Herbert
Bismarck that our son was to be employed at the Foreign Office
were " Datnit seine junge Seele vor Irrthumer lewahrt wiirde "-1 I
have it from Herbert's own lips. The " errors " were — his father's

1 So that his young soul may be guarded against errors.

362

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

and mother's wishes and opinions, — their house and their friends! 1888
Certainly the [old] Emperor William succeeded — alas for Ger-
many— and no one helped more to destroy whatever she once
thought right than the Empress Augusta! We wanted nothing else
than what she gave herself endless trouble to effect with her
own son. She wished him to have less prejudices, einen freieren^
weheren Blick?- than the rest of his family and did him an immense
service thereby, but she completely turned round of late years,
and did all she could to deprive us of any influence over William !
In this she was seconded by her daughter and all the Emperor
William's Household. I often complained to you of it! They
succeeded — and all we are now suffering are die fruits of this,
which used to worry and torment Fritz so much!

P.S, — A most curious fact [she added] is that Count Miinster,
who left Friedrichsruh yesterday, found Prince Bismarck sehr milde
gestimmt* determined not to have a war with France. He said about
William, " Der Kaiser ist wie ein Ballon, wenn man ifin nicht
fest hiehe am Stuck, ginge er, man weiss nickt wohin *'.3 Princess
Bismarck said, " Die Kaiserin Friedrich thut mir in der Seele weh.
Sie wird dock %u schlecht und %u hart lekandeh".* Either she
does not know that all the spite comes from her own people, or
they keep it purposely from her! William said to me, " All my
excellent Kessel says, I believe implicitly ". This shows enough
how bad the influence is — Lyncker has a bad influence also — not
because he is false, but because he is borne, violent, rough, always
for strong measures and exceedingly schroff, whereas Kessel is false,
dangerous and a direct mischief-maker. William has yet to learn
that one cannot ride rough-shod over other people's feelings and
rights and views, without causing them to rise up and protest and
resist such treatment! He is really like a child that pulls off a fly's
legs or wings and does not think the fly minds it, or that it matters.
I do not think he the least understands how I have been insulted
and injured and what I have gone through. The people around
him incessantly are pouring gossip and calumnies into his ears and

1 A freer, wider outlook. 2 In a gentle mood.

3 The Emperor is like a balloon, if one did not hold him fast
on a string, he would go no one knows whither.

4 The Empress Frederick makes my heart ache. She is indeed
being treated too unkindly and too roughly.

363

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

iSSS poisoning his mind against me and all his father's friends, and he
is so credulous that he believes everything without even asking
whether it be true or not! It is very painful to me to have to
speak out and make him understand that I will not submit to the
things they have tried to make me swallow, and that I am deeply
wounded by the utter disregard shown to all my feelings.

Nine days later the Empress Frederick and her
youngest daughters left Germany to visit England — or
" home " as they all regarded it. Even thirty years of
residence in Germany had not quenched in the Empress
that ardent love of her native land which was one of her
most dominant characteristics.

She was accompanied to the railway station at Berlin
by her son, the Emperor William, who now seemed
desirous of making amends for his previous behaviour.
A few days after the Empress had left for England the
British Military Attache in Berlin, Colonel Leopold
Swaine, wrote to Sir Henry Ponsonby, Queen Victoria's
Private Secretary :

Although a Sunday, I had to see General von Waldersee on
business, and at its conclusion the General volunteered the remark
that he was very glad that the Empress Frederick had left for Eng-
land, as he hoped that not alone the period of Her Majesty's absence
from Berlin must help to make much that had passed here lately of
an unpleasant nature between her and the Emperor lose in acute-
ness, but also that the Queen's influence during the Empress's stay
in England would have a beneficial result. On the latter he laid
the greater weight, for it was noticed after the two days of the
Queen's stay in Charlottenburg her influence had been of so much
value.

The General said that at an interview he had had last week with
the Emperor, His Majesty had expressed himself as most regretful
at the strained relations existing between his mother and himself.
He had stated that he was most anxious and desirous that this should
cease, but that there were some points on which it was impossible
for him to give in, and he hoped Her Majesty's stay in England

364

WAR DIARY OF EMPEROR FREDERICK

would put an end to these for ever and make them disappear for 1888
good and all.

He said that the Emperor was young and that it consequently
pained him more than it would an older man whenever it was for-
gotten that he was Emperor and consequently head of the family,
and that in matters concerning the country he was frequently
treated as a son without its being remembered that he was also
Emperor. He instanced the Empress Augusta, who, he said, never
left Berlin to go to Coblentz or change her domicile anywhere with-
out previously informing the young Emperor, thereby showing
him that she considered him as the head of the house.

The whole thing, if I may so express myself, appears silly vanity.
But if these little attentions are likely to have good results and
would tend to bring about a more affectionate rapprochement they
are worthy of a trial.

I know the Empress Frederick does not like Count Waldersee
and looks upon him as one of those who are priming the Emperor
with bad advice, but I can positively state that this morning he
spoke with great feeling and great regret, and I do not think that he
is acting otherwise than for the best to diminish the difficulties
existing between mother and son. He complained bitterly of the
tittle-tattle that was going on, and on which he lays the whole blame
of the situation.

The Emperor saw the Empress Frederick off this morning and
as far as outward signs went nothing could have been more
affectionate.

365

CHAPTER XIV

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND, 1889

1889 THE Empress Frederick and her daughters returned to
Germany from England at the end of February 1889, and
her return was marked for the moment by a much better
relationship between her and her eldest son, who now
sought from Queen Victoria an invitation to visit England
in state during the course of the summer. Queen Victoria,
whilst anxious not to do anything that would give the
impression that she took sides with the Emperor against
his mother, was desirous that there should be no cause
for Anglo-German differences, and therefore accorded
her grandson the invitation he sought.

During this period there had been much perturbation
over the publication by Ernest IL, Duke of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha, the brother of the Prince Consort, of his
frank memoirs under the title of Aus mewem Lelen und
aus meiner Zeit. The first volume appeared in 1887, and
the second and third followed in die succeeding two
years. Beyond .the fact that these volumes are one long
eulogy of Bismarck, it seems difficult to account for the
hostility with which the Empress Frederick regarded
them, and certainly there seems to be nothing to justify
her complaint that they contained attacks on Queen
Victoria. Most of the references to the Crown Prince
show him in a favourable light, and the general impression
given is one of affection and admiration for both him and
366

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

his wife. Certain passages, however, probably did appear 1889
to the Empress as derogatory to her late husband, and
to anyone accustomed, as the Empress was, to fulsome
praise of him, even a slight criticism might have seemed
like abuse.

It was to these topics of the Emperor William's visit
to England and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg's memoirs that
the Empress alluded in her letter to Queen Victoria of
March 15, 1889 :

I quite understand about William's visit [she wrote] and your
position with regard to it. I know you could not do otherwise,
but I am sure you will also understand what my feelings must be.
No amends have ever been made to me for all I have been made
to suffer, no explanations offered, nor excuses, and I cannot forget
what has passed.

What is your advice about Uncle Ernest ? I begged Lenchen
to write to you about it. This is the second infamous pamphlet
written against me, with covert attacks against you, from his pen.
This, added to the misrepresentations in his newly issued Memoirs,
is doing a great deal of harm and especially creates in the minds
of my three elder children a totally false and very mischievous im-
pression. It is too wicked of him. It is generally known that I
was very fond of him, so people think that he must know what
is going on.

You remember William's speech at Vienna the other day to
poor Rudolf,1 who in confidence told Bertie of it, which fully
bears out what I say. Some person or other ought to be found to
set this straight.

I thought you might like to know what the treasonable letters
are which Roggenbach and GefTcken wrote to each other. A friend
of mine with great difficulty got hold of one of the printed copies
which were circulated — in this Bundesrath, but not elsewhere
allowed — and copied them hastily. These are the papers which
were taken out of these gentlemen's boxes and tables in their

1 The Austrian heir-apparent, who had committed suicide on
January 30.

367

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 889 absence — a piece of unheard-of audacity and law-breaking. Please
keep them among my papers.

How William and Bismarck can think without blushing of
what they did, I do not know, but you see what one is exposed
to now in Germany; die reiche Bourgeoisie lei uns ist feige, wer
aberfur sein Brot arbeiten muss und mcht als Beamter abhangig ist3
knirsckt mit den Zdhnen fiber das Junkerregiment?-

Some think when Bismarck is no more that all this party will
be scattered to the winds ; for as he has no principles he cannot
build up. The party have a leader, but no programme. They will
follow him everywhere and are in constant admiration, but with
no firm institutions and principles a party cannot hold together
when the leader is gone. Still the mischief will not be over when
he disappears, as he has thoroughly corrupted all moral sense in
the young men who will come after him. Where is the hand and
the mind to take up Bismarck's position and work on the lines
of honesty and moderate rational progress for the development of
true freedom ? I see none. That is why my beloved darling said,
" Ich darfja nicht sterben; was wiirde aus Deutschland? " 2

I am afraid I shall bore you, but you know I have no one to
speak to here in the house. No one cares, knows or understands,
and in my half-sleepless nights I lie and ponder on these sad things,
hoping and praying that it may be well with Germany, but feeling
that this is not the road to safety, prosperity or liberty — to a whole-
some state of things. How many good and excellent men who are
persecuted and calumniated are suffering and sighing in silence and
despair as I am.

A week later. March 22, the Empress again wrote to
Queen Victoria :

I have just received your dear letter by messenger, for which
many affectionate thanks. This is the old Emperor William's
Birthday. I wrote a long letter to the Empress Augusta, and as
this is the warmest answer I have received since June, I send it
for you to guess what the others must have been like!

1 Our rich middle class is cowardly, but he who must work
for his bread and is not dependent on Government employment
gnashes his teeth over the " Junker " Government.

2 I must not die ; what would become of Germany ?
368

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

About Uncle Ernest, I will try and furnish you more decided 18
proofs, so that something may be done ! He ought at least to be
made to feel that such behaviour is unworthy of our dear father's
brother and of a gentleman ! How cruelly ungrateful it is to you, to
Fritz and to me ! He boasts of leading and advising William, and
of having " opened his eyes " about me and my family !!

The cold and indifferent attitude of her son had now
produced in the Empress a feeling that was a mixture of
resignation and injured pride. She agreed with Queen
Victoria (March 28) :

that William is not quite aware of the insults and injuries I have
suffered at his hands, though I certainly did my best to enlighten
him! As he does not feel for his mother he cannot be surprised
if she who gave him so much love and care, now can only
remember with pain that he is her son. Perhaps years may change
this, but at present I am too sore and have suffered too much!
He has it in his power, if he likes, to change this. I can do nothing,
nor will I ever give way and humour him, and bear all in patience
and silence, as I did from last June to last November (for his
sister's sake) again. He simply accepts that and thinks he can
continue to ride rough-shod over me ; there he makes a mistake.
I think he simply is so wrapped up in himself, his power, his
vanity, his plans, his position, that he does not remember my
existence.

I so thoroughly and utterly disapprove of all that has been
done since that dread day, with very few exceptions, and have so
little hope of its mending, that I strive to hear as little and think
about it as little as I can. But one cannot cease to care for the
country and its interests, and it is difficult to become indifferent
to things which for thirty years and up to last June seemed of
vital importance to Fritz and to me, and which we watched with
such anxiety.

For the next month there is little of historical interest
in the letters of the Empress to Queen Victoria, Family
and social news predominate, but there are occasional

2B 369

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 references to Germany, which she feared (March 29)
was becoming " a sort of military Paraguay ", and to
" William and Dona ", who, as she wrote on April 6,
" were quite nice and civil, and meant to be amiable,
mals voila tout! " On April 9 she records :

I lunched with William and Dona yesterday! No one knows
what it cost me to go there and see our own servants and Fritz's
Jager serving behind their chairs, etc. Their new rooms are very
gorgeous, but it is all rather heavy and overloaded and wanting
in real refinement, I think.

Yesterday Prince Bismarck came. It was a bitter pill to me to
have to receive him after all that has taken place and with all that
is going on. He talked a great deal about Rudolf, and said that a
scene with the Emperor (of Austria) had taken place, according
to Reuss' s account. Perhaps Reuss was wrong. I should think
very likely.

Prince Reuss's account, however, was very near the
truth of this mysterious episode. It would appear that
the Emperor of Austria took strong exception to a certain
liaison which his heir-apparent had formed, and the
Archduke Rudolf resolved to break off the entangling
shackles to which the Emperor objected. His final inter-
view with the lady resulted in the tragedy of Mayerling,
when both he and his mistress were found dead together.
On April 20 the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I have heard different things about poor Rudolf which
may perhaps interest you. Prince Bismarck told me that the violent
scenes and altercations between the Emperor and Rudolf had been
the cause of Rudolf's suicide. I replied that I had heard this much
doubted, upon which he said Reuss had written it and it was so!
He would send me the despatch to read if I liked, but I have
declined. I did not say what I thought, which is that for thirty
years I have had the experience of how many lies Prince Bismarck's
diplomatic agents (with some exceptions) have written him, and
therefore I usually disbelieve what they write completely, unless I
370

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

know them to be honest and trustworthy men. Szechenyi, the 1889
Ambassador at Berlin, whom we know very well, tells me that
there had been no scenes with the Emperor, who said to Szechenyi :
"Dies 1st der erste Kummer9 den mein Sohn mir mackt." 1 I give you
the news for what it is worth. General Loe heard from Austrian
sources that the catastrophe was not premeditated for that day!
but that the young lady had destroyed herself and, seeing that,
Rudolf thought there was nothing else left to him, and that he had
killed himself with a Forster Gewehr which he stood on the
ground and then trod on the trigger. Loe considers, as I do, poor
Rudolf's death a terrible misfortune. The Chancellor, I think,
does not deplore it, and did not like him I . . .

Preparations were now well under way for the state
visit of William II. to England in the August of 1889, to
which both Germany and Britain looked forward as an
expression of Anglo-German amity. Germany's young
colonial empire was now proving something more of a
national interest than Bismarck had imagined, and it was
to these subjects that the Empress alluded in the same
letter of April 20, which contained the references to the
Archduke Rudolf's death.

When I was at Berlin I saw William three times : once he and
Dona called, when we arrived, to return my visit; once we lunched
with them, and on Vicky's birthday they had supper with us. No
subject of any interest or importance was touched upon! He came
to the railway station when I left, as he was just leaving himself
for Wilhelmshafen! The whole time he was gay and merry, but
quite indifferent, never asking me one question about myself^ and
not one sympathising or kind word was uttered!

Their going to Friedrichskron is a pang to me I cannot describe !
If one could think they went there with the right feelings it would
be so different — if only it had been left one year uninhabited after
all that happened! To think of the room our beloved one closed
his eyes in now simply used as a passage, — strangers going to and
fro and laughing, etc. All the rooms we inhabited and where I
suffered such untold agonies, after one short year occupied by

1 This is the first vexation my son has caused me.

371

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 others, and the home ringing with noise, laughter and merriment
before a year is out, pains me so bitterly! I know it is foolish,
but I cannot get over it! . . .

If you wish for my impression on politics, I will give it you,
I think it totally different from the one that for instance Christian
has! He has mixed in society and with officers and people of the
court and Conservatives and Bismarckites! These say William is
very popular and things are going on beautifully. This is not my
impression. I think "William is totally blind and that the Govern-
ment make one mistake after another. Herbert Bismarck's influence
is supreme, — his old father toadies William as he never did his
grandfather or his father 1 The evil party have everything in their
hands and all the power, and do absolutely what they like.
William is quite one of them. All serious, important and well-
informed people think the state of things sad and dangerous and
feel that they cannot last, that the serious questions which will arise
cannot be dealt with after the fashion of Prince Bismarck and his
party, but that one cannot tell when, or whether, the veil will be
rent which so completely obscures William's eyes, and when they
will be opened to the real facts.

Many — amongst others Friedberg and Prince Radolin — implore
me not to leave Berlin, and say that my very existence there is a
silent protest against many things and a little check on those who
now drive William in the direction they like! I am not of this
opinion. Wherever I can be of any use to William or to the
country in ever so small a way, I am always ready — but after the
way in which I have been treated, to live on there and accept
smilingly all they choose to heap on me, and be the butt for
their calumnies and intrigues, would soon kill me, je me con-
siuneraisl My life would be more or less an imprisonment. I
had best keep quite quiet, lie still, and keep out of the way of the
Berlin Court and Government, until they are forced to see the error
of their ways! I shall always go to Berlin from time to time, but
it would be far too soon to spend the coming winter there, quarrels
and disagreeables would be unavoidable.

I am sure William will make himself amiable and agreeable in
England — as he was cross during the Jubilee because his father
and mother were there, and he could not play the first part! Now
he thinks he will have all to himself and can afford to be gracious.
Prince Bismarck is anxious now for England's friendship, as well

372

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

he may, as it suits him for the moment not only with his Zanzibar 1889
and Samoa businesses, which have been so shamefully mismanaged,
but in view of European complications which he is anxious to
avoid, but which I fancy are beyond his control. He has made a
fatal mistake with Austria 1 He has so weakened her that she
becomes almost useless as an Ally! His policy of allowing the
Balkan States to become powerless is a great blow to Austria!
Bulgaria under Ferdinand is a reed to lean on, Servia — without
King Milan — will hardly withstand Russian influence, and Pan-
slavism is working hard to upset Charles of Roumania and seize
upon his country! If Russia is the Master in the East and the
Russians have finished getting ready their regiments in Poland
(which are not quite ready) she will attack Austria to a certainty,
in spite of the Czar's dislike to such an undertaking.

Prince Bismarck has weakened Austria by incessantly preaching
to her to give way to Russia in everything! Poor Rudolf knew
this and saw it so well.

The French wish for peace because of their Exhibition and
because their new infantry rifles are not all ready ; they will be so
in April next year, and ours in Germany will not. If the Russians
attack Austria and we are forced to help the Austrians, the French
will not be able to resist the opportunity of falling upon us ! "We
should then have to drop Austria and face both French and the
Russians!! How awful that would be!! Of what use the Bul-
garians, Servians and Roumanians might have been in assisting
Austria!! Perhaps all this need not come to pass, but we seem to
be drifting in this direction. The clouds seem to gather, but they
may disperse again!

With regard to the Colonial policy, Prince Bismarck is caught
in his own trap! He never seriously thought of having Colonies
or fighting for them, but he encouraged the misguided and artificial
enthusiasm about Zanzibar and Samoa, because he thought he
could use it for electioneering purposes, and that flourishing the
patriotic flag, and blowing the national trumpet, would make him
popular, and enable him to get what he wanted from the Reichstag.
Meanwhile not only the Chauvinistic party but William have taken
it quite an. sdrieux and wish it followed up. The Chancellor does
not dare to say that it would be wiser to drop all such under-
takings for the present and while the state of European peace is so
uncertain, but I have no doubt he thinks it.

373

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 Many of the letters which the Empress Frederick had
written to Queen Victoria were now shown by the Queen
to Lady Ponsonby, the Empress's trusted friend. The
following letter of thanks from Lady Ponsonby, which
Queen Victoria kept among the Empress's letters, gives
some idea of the way in which people unthinkingly
widened the breach between the Empress and her son by
repeating every unkind word that the one said of the
other. That the Empress should have had in her service
persons who reported to the Emperor all her references
to him is perhaps hardly to be wondered at, but it is
interesting to find that among the Emperor's suite also
there were those who never lost an opportunity of telling
the Empress all he said of her. They can have had little
to gain by doing so, since the Empress was practically
friendless and powerless, and the obvious inference to be
drawn is that they wished to keep the breach open and
to prevent any possible reconciliation between mother
and son.

It seems sometimes [Lady Ponsonby wrote to Queen Victoria
on May 4, 1889] as if it were impossible to unravel all the
troubles and complexities of the Empress's position and to dis-
entangle what is important in the difficulties to be overcome — to
separate the grave matters too hard almost for Her Majesty to over-
look, which in spite of the deep sorrow and tragic suffering of the
past year have been forced upon her, from the smaller troubles
which might possibly be smoothed over and explained away in
time. The Empress has, in her gracious kindness, often spoken to
me of the puzzled and nearly hopeless confusion in which the
problem of her future position and existence seems to be involved,
but when Her Majesty is calm and free from the rapportage so fatal
to her peace of mind, which is so deeply to be regretted, I think the
Empress judges the whole situation in as wise and patient a manner
as can be expected, and it is this frame of mind which it is devoutly
to be wished her friends should encourage.

The Empress is far too clever to mix up the bitter feeling of

374

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

revolt, which the evils of a cruel destiny must inevitably at times 1889
raise in the mind of one so gifted and capable of ruling, at being as
it were set aside, with the just indignation aroused by unworthy
treatment, and I have often heard Her Majesty recognise the fact
that dignity and strength will be best shown in acquiescing in the
inevitable silently. A Frenchman has said, "Les mediocres ne
s'apercoivent pas combien il y a de mepris dans w certain silence,
mats Us gens d9 esprit ne sy trompent guere ".

The inevitable : the young Emperor must be first. He must
be very German. He is not a boy, and however right Her Majesty
may be about the mistaken policy of the German Government, to
oppose it, or to speak against it even to the most confidential friend
would, in my humble opinion, as I have often expressed it to Her
Majesty, cause her own difficulties to increase without effecting
the smallest iota of change in the policy pursued. The regrettable
and reprehensible manner in which the Emperor lightly treats his
father's memory and his mother's feelings and wishes, must harm
His Majesty more than it can do the Empress, and if it were possible
(how difficult it will ever be, everyone who loves and sympathises
with the dear Empress must feel from the depths of their heart) for
Her Majesty resolutely to abstain from listening to the reports and
repeated words which, perhaps well-meaning, but certainly officious
friends hasten to furnish, this would be a great gain. I ventured
once to suggest that if people existed who never lost an opportunity
of recording every unpleasant impatient word or speech to widen
the breach between mother and son, how likely it was that others
could be found who acted in the opposite direction on precisely
the same principle, and that every syllable of criticism pronounced
by Her Majesty found its way back to the Emperor. It is true that
as the Empress remarked there is no adverse influence in Her
Majesty's entourage to correspond with the baneful and calumnious
effect of the Emperor's immediate advisers, and it is at this point the
exceptional difficulties start up. It seems almost more than human
nature can bear to know that misrepresentation and lies are freely
circulated and yet to take no notice. Even here, silence would, I
venture to think, in the long run carry a more crushing refutation
than retaliation. The Empress Frederick is a very powerful person-
ality in Europe, and as such, quietly, silently, but very surely, as I
believe, this strong individuality will gather round one centre all
that is first-rate in society and in the artistic and literary world; later,

375

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 it is probable also in the political world, but for this it is obvious
that anything like interference, active or passive, in politics, would
be fatal to Her Majesty's peace.

There is one subject touched upon by the Empress on which
I am presumptuous enough to disagree with Her Majesty. At the
time the difficulty arose between the Emperor and the Prince of
Wales, the matter got into the newspapers, and the outside world
expressed pretty freely its opinion to the disadvantage of the Ger-
man Emperor. At the same time more than one German remarked
to me : now is the moment for the Empress Frederick to play the
beau role of smoothing matters for her son. Her Majesty says
nothing could be easier than for the Emperor to write a short letter
which would set everything straight; if Her Majesty couldbe induced
to suggest it, her son could not fail to recognise what a noble forget-
fulness of her wrongs this desire to conciliate English opinion
showed. , . .

During the early months of 1889 signs had not been
lacking that all was not coideur de rose between the new
Emperor and Prince Bismarck. William IL, according to
his own Memoirs, was a devoted admirer and pupil of
the Iron Chancellor, but it was an uncongenial fact to
him that while he was the nominal ruler of Germany,
Prince Bismarck was the actual ruler. Their first outward
and visible sign of difference occurred over the Chan-
cellor's treatment of certain elements in the industrial
situation in Germany. Early in May 1889 the Krupp
works at Essen were compelled to close down owing to
a strike of the Westphalian coal-miners for increased pay
and shorter hours of labour. Bismarck at once saw to it
that troops were available to maintain order. The result
was a conflict between the troops and the miners on May
7 in which three miners were killed. Within a week
100,000 strikers were out, and on May 14 the Emperor
received three delegates from the miners, to whom he
made a characteristic speech. In the following days the
376

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

dislocation spread to Silesia and another 20,000 men 1889
ceased work.

A law dealing with the working classes was now about
to be passed through the German Parliament — a law
promulgated by Prince Bismarck to compel the workers,
with government assistance, to provide for old age and
infirmity.

On May 18 the Dowager Empress wrote to Queen
Victoria :

The Strike of the Coal-miners is a very serious thing! I was
more than horrified at William's speech. "Win. told the men that
if they had anything to do with the " Social Democrats " ich werde
Euck alien uber den Haufen schiessen lassen^

It is just like him! He uses les gros mots wherever he can and
thinks himself very grand ! I think such words in the mouth of
a Sovereign, and so young and inexperienced a man, most brutal
and unbecoming. But this is his style and that of the present
regime. Never would my beloved Fritz have uttered such a
threat, or thought of bettering matters by holding out the prospect
of such violent measures. It sounds so childish besides! The
Liberal members of the Reichstag have taken the greatest trouble
to put the matters straight between the employers and men on
strike, and I think have succeeded to a certain degree!

The new Law, Alters und Invaliden Versorgung^ which has been
so hastily pushed through, is not a good one, and while purposing
to be a great boon to the workmen, is in reality not an advantage
to them, and all men who have thoroughly studied the question
think this Law ill considered. Of course it takes in the public, who
do not thoroughly know the question, and sounds like an immense
benefit to the working classes.

The Westphalian coal strike ended on May 31 by a
compromise between masters and men — but the ensuing
year was to see a further recrudescence of trouble in this
area.

1 I will have you all shot down.

377

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 June 15, 1889, was the first anniversary of the death
of the Emperor Frederick, and all the poignant memories
of that period found expression in the letter of the
Empress Frederick to her mother of June 14 :

"What an agony it is [she wrote] to remember each little detail
of last year I

I cannot even now realize that such a sorrow as this has indeed
come to darken every day and hour of my life ; and when such
an Anniversary as the i5th June comes round — no words can
convey what one's feelings are! The cruel haunting memories —
the agonising thoughts, which being brought back so vividly,
increase one's misery and desolation and quite overwhelm one
with almost unbearable heartache! I remember how he kissed
Sophie and gave her the flowers, etc., and seemed cheerful and
ready to think of all the little things — for the day.

To me it hardly seems as if a year could have passed since those
fatal days — and yet how long and weary those twelve months have
been — what days and weeks of misery they have contained! and
yet life has to be faced, and lived and struggled with, and duties
remain. The battle seems almost superhuman sometimes! But
how your love and care and sympathy and kindness have cheered
and helped me on and given me courage ; and the faithful affec-
tion of my few real friends — the sunshine of my three dear girls'
presence! What a blessing those three dear young lives are to me,
and how grateful I am to have them — his dear children! I am not
ungrateful for this — nor for the fact that our beloved Fritz lives
on in the heart of the German nation at large in spite of detraction
and calumny, and that his bright image and noble example will
not be forgotten. This is very soothing to me — and this even
our enemies cannot destroy! "Das Andenken d&s Ger&chten Ueilt
em Segen." 1

When I think of the first year of the new reign ! ! mistake after
mistake — blunder after blunder! How many people persecuted,
wronged, offended, injured and calumniated ! ! hardly one generous
or noble action done! Alas! also inseparable from the memories
of those days in June at Friedrichshof are those of the cordon of
Hussars round the house — the orders to the doctors against my

1 The memory of the just is blessed.

378

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

beloved one's wishes — the brutal treatment of Sir M. Mackenzie 1889
and those who assisted me in nursing and tending our angel 1 —
the sanctioned pamphlet of Bergmann and Gerhardt ; the treachery
of Kessel and Winterfeldt, the false heartlessness of Prince Bismarck,
the daring impertinence of his son ; the accusations and calumnies
against me and all Fritz's friends — above all the disregard of
Fritz's last wishes, of his last letter, the ruin of two dear young
people's hopes! the spirit in which all arrangements were made
and all those by Fritz upset and undone!!

These are things which I cannot forgive or forget! I can bear
them in silence, I can refrain from trying to find redress, or from
retaliating. Time may soften these impressions and also undo
some of the harm which has purposely been done me in the
eyes of Germany — it may some day open the eyes of my three elder
children to the fact that their mother is not a conspirator against
Germany and a traitor to the country, as she has been made out
to them to be, and as they have allowed themselves to be led to
believe ; but it can never wipe out from my remembrance what
has passed during the first twelve months of W.'s reign! It will be
my duty some day to endeavour to let the truth go down to history
and not the lies that suit Prince Bismarck and the Government
and all those who court its favour !

Queen Victoria's sympathetic reply brought the Em-
press to a more equable state of mind, and the following
letter, written on June 21, gives some indication of the
influence which the aged Queen exerted over her eldest
daughter and of the wise counsel she gave her. Judging
by the replies from the Empress, her mother invariably
urged moderation and did everything in her power to
bring the Empress and her son into much more amicable
relations.

You are right [the Empress wrote] in saying I ought not to
say " I will never forgive '* — indeed the example of Him who
forgave his enemies and taught us to pray " Forgive us our
trespasses " is ever before me. It is wrong to say I cannot forgive
and I do not think I possess a revengeful or vindictive disposition,
nor that I find it difficult to forget and forgive when I have been

379

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 injured, or offended; but I do find it hard to forgive the wrong
done to those I love, to my husband and my child, to our friends,
and quietly accept what those in power may think fit to dare
to do! When one is not un chiffon one feels very intensely the
gross insults to which one has had to submit, and thinks that some
sort of amends ought to be made and that it is not necessary for
everyone to try and smooth the path for the oppressor who rides
rough-shod over one! The good of both countries and political
considerations go first, but the triumph of those who have behaved
so shamefully to me is very hard to bear. They get everything
they want, are flattered and honoured and made much of, and
revel in the thought of the injuries and humiliations they have
inflicted on me. However, I will try and steel myself against all
these stabs.

I was so anxious you should know the rights about this new
Law passed at Berlin, as your Embassy and the Times would
only give you the official view, that I put down in German
my views, which are those of our friends, and asked Miss Green
to translate it, which she has done, and I now send it, begging
you would kindly return it when you have read it! It might also
interest Sir H. Ponsonby. The present regime strikes violent
blows against all that is Liberal, progressive and independent, — a
gradual, steady, moderate development of Liberty it will not
tolerate and seeks to destroy, and favours Socialism to flatter the
masses and have their support for despotism and Caesarism. It
is very much the system of the Emperor Napoleon and still more
the creed of Prince Napoleon, but it is bad and dangerous!
William has never studied these questions — does not care for
them, or understand them, — has no opinion of his own, but takes
up that of the Bismarcks with violence and obstinacy. Anyone
who dares to point out the danger of such a course is put down as
a traitor and malefactor, so those who care for their own ease,
peace and comfort are silent! I am silent because I should not be
understood, and it would be of no use. Still I wish that you should
know the drift of what has lately been done in our poor Germany.
To me much of it seems blind folly and ignorance — to the
followers and admirers of B. it appears sublime wisdom.

In the following month the Empress made many
endeavours to arrive at a more satisfactory intercourse

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

with her son William. But the memory of her humilia- 1889
tions still rankled. On July 19 she wrote to Queen
Victoria :

I wish so much to say a little more about "William so that you
may be quite aufait. I have struggled with myself very hard, and
I think I am now in quite a calm and forgiving frame of mind,
not anxious to rake up all grievances, etc., but I wish those who
are so good and kind to me to know that I am particularly
careful to do my duty vis-a-vis of William, and not to give any
handle to those who wish to turn all against me! I only wish to
be left in peace and quiet, not persecuted and not constantly
calumniated. I have, as you know, no ambition to possess any
influence, or to meddle and interfere with anything the present
regime does ! I cannot approve of what it does, nor of the persons
who are in power, so I am only anxious to see and hear as little
as possible about them and keep out of their way altogether. I
can make many an allowance for William^ as he has had his mind
systematically poisoned against me and has been told for years
that it was die greatest misfortune that his Papa listened to me
and had confidence in me, and that I was an enemy of Germany
and held dangerous opinions, etc. . . .

Of late it has been the endeavour of all those around him to
increase his distrust of me, to which Charlotte has, alas^ greatly
contributed.

Therefore no effort of mine to be on good terms with him is
of any use. There is no confidence^ and he does not in the least
understand me, or indeed know anything about me!

I believe he considers himself a good son, and does not perceive
how during this whole year he has not only cruelly neglected me,
but also allowed injuries and insults to be heaped upon me. I
cannot enumerate again all that has been done since June 1 5th, 1888
— you know the things which have wounded my heart, and
offended my dignity. It would be of no use if you were to tell
him this, or to say I had many subjects of complaint that I could
not forget, but it might be of use to tell him that there was a
great deal of sympathy for his parents in England, and that you
thought it would be his duty to defend and protect his mother
and to try and make up to her for the cruelly hard fate she had
to suffer! This might make an impression! He is so selfish and

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 has already been so rucksichtslos to us, that it has become a perfect
habit, and he would be very much astonished if he were told how
badly he has behaved to us, and how shamefully his Government
and entourage have treated me ! The treachery and want of respect
to his Father — the insolence, enmity to me! He does not see or
understand that he had no better friends than his parents ; he never
understood his Papa, and he thinks all women dolts or idiots. His
wife has shown no tact and no nice or kind feeling towards me
and above all no gratitude. This is all very sad, but it is so, and
I shall suffer from it as long as I live, but I have made up my
mind to this and must content myself with a footing of outward
civility, which I shall do all to maintain 1 One thing must not be
forgotten, that all the accusations heaped upon me have never
been refuted, and that until William is convinced by circumstances,
or by someone or other, that they are lies, and is anxious to atone
in some way for the insults offered to me, I cannot feel otherwise
than deeply hurt and offended I This I am sure you will not think
strange and would do the same in my place,

Treitschke received a public reward after his abuse of us,
Puttkamer the " Black Eagle " after Fritz had dismissed him in
displeasure, Bergmann and Gerhardt decorations and favours
after Fritz was so dissatisfied with their services, and so I could
name a long string of deeds, one and all directed against Fritz and
me — whether they were meant so by William or not. Of his
words and his speeches I say nothing, for he can always follow the
example of Bismarck and his son, and flatly deny, when it suits
him, what he has said before 1 This belongs to their system ; when
they have vilified and injured a person to their hearts* content —
because it seems politic at the moment — they afterwards pretend to
forget it, and are much surprised that their victim still remembers it.
I saw Prince Radolin two days ago and he said Herbert
Bismarck complained that you had said you did not wish Kessel
to go to England, and how strange it was that you should know
anything about the Emperor's Aides-de-Camp, or have a prefer-
ence for one or the other, and again referred to General Winter-
feldt having been so badly treated at Windsor. Prince Radolin, of
course, gave him a very good answer! Please keep this to yourself.

Whilst the moderating influence of Queen Victoria
was thus making itself felt in the relations between the
382

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

Empress and her son, there was steadily growing in the :
German court another influence that was destined to have
the most deplorable effect upon the Emperor William II.
For some years there had been in his immediate entourage
a Prussian officer of chauvinist views — Count von Wal-
dersee, who, in the various campaigns since 1866, had
proved his undoubted military ability. In 1881 he became
Moltke's Chief of Staff, and when Moltke retired, Walder-
see stepped into his shoes as Chief of the General Staff.
There were now signs of a growing rivalry between
Waldersee and the Bismarcks, and to her letter of July 19
the Empress added the postscript :

You may have heard about the rivalry between the Bismarcks
and Count "Waldersee — the latter has a pernicious influence on
"William., and I am told by many — also by Hintzpeter — that it is
he who has set William so against me for years! Waldersee is .a
great friend of Bernhard and Charlotte. Neither the late Emperor
William, nor Fritz, could bear him, and distrusted him very much
— he is not nearly as clever as Moltke, and a very shifty and
changeable individual. She (Countess von Waldersee) is a very
good woman, but violently Low Church, a partisan of Stacker's
and a very great friend of Dona's. The Stocker parry are hated
in Germany, and Prince Bismarck is sharp enough to know that
to patronise it openly (though it consists of his own followers
— Conservatives, etc.) would not do, therefore he was secretly
anxious to get rid of Puttkamer, who was their great supporter.
Now, of course, he disclaims having anything to do with Putt-
kamer's rail, and all to please William ; and it is said that I took
advantage of Fritz's weakness to get rid of Puttkamer,

On August i the Emperor William IL, with a German
fleet, arrived at Spithead on his state visit. Honours were
lavished upon him. He was created a British admiral,
a grand naval review was arranged for his pleasure on
August 5, and two days later he was present at manoeuvres
at Aldershot The Emperor's reply to his being made a

383

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 British admiral was to make his grandmother. Queen
Victoria, a colonel of a German Dragoon regiment. On
August 8 he left England, much pleased with his reception.
During the stay Queen Victoria had endeavoured,
without, however, much success, to induce her grandson
to treat his mother in a better manner. He listened atten-
tively to what she said, but hardly was he back In Ger-
many than the old attitude of indifference and hostility
reasserted itself. In her letter to Queen Victoria of August
24 the Empress reviewed the events of the past five years.
Mortifications are often harder to bear, and cause more
distress, than real calamities, and try as she would, the
Empress could not forget the many humiliations that had
been heaped upon her by her son William. What she
felt most of all was the fact that it was impossible to tell
him anything. Surrounded as he was by men who did
not dare tell him the truth or who knew little or nothing
of what was transpiring behind the scenes, he remained
in a fool's paradise. The one person who could have
enlightened him was Bismarck, but Bismarck kept silence.
The Empress's letter, dated August 24, ran as follows :

I am also very grateful that you spoke to William and I hope
it may have a good effect, though I am not sanguine about it. As
you say, he hears such nonsense about and against me. But his
mind has been thoroughly poisoned against his parents for the
last four or five years by the circles in which he moved, the people
with whom he associated for political purposes, and the influence
of his Grandparents (without their meaning to do harm) was
exercised in this same direction. I do not see how, with a credulous
and suspicious disposition as his is — without much judgment or
discernment, or experience — this is to change, as he is surrounded
by people whose interest it is and who incessantly try to malign
me. None have done more harm than Uncle Ernest, Herbert
Bismarck, Charlotte and G. v. Kessel.

You say I am not to listen to things told me against him. I
384

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S VISIT TO ENGLAND

have no one about me to speak against him. My entourage are 1889
his creatures and the system of rapportage and espionage is
so great at Berlin that they would not venture to open their
lips. Besides there is not one who is of my way of thinking poli-
tically, as you know. From Fritz's friends and mine I am com-
pletely cut off; and everyone I see always tries to make me think
William in the right. Needless to say they do not convince me,
and often even irritate me, as I feel the injustice of being told to
swallow still more, and to forget the things that are too insulting
to forget. I judge William's feelings to me, not by the things he
says alone, which are no secret, as everyone knows them, but by
his deeds. His conduct during the whole year 1887 and 1888 —
surely I need not repeat it all. From June 1 5th to the day when
the name of Friedrichskron was abolished, it was a string of insults.
My wishes and his dear father's set at nought — about his precious
remains before the funeral. My feelings outraged. The soldiers
round the house, our telegrams stopped. The treatment of Sir M.
Mackenzie, the publication of Gerhardt's and Bergmann'svile book;
the confiscation of the answer, the treatment of Sandro, the brutal
way in which W. broke off his sister's marriage and treated us,
disregarding his father's orders and Friedberg's advice. The press
campaign against me paid by his Government. The affair about
the Foreign Office cypher, which I am still supposed to have
appropriated, whereas Kessel had it. The F£tes given and the
official journeys taken during the first three months of deepest
mourning. The affair of Fritz's Journal. The insulting Immediat
Bericht of Bismarck, calling Fritz and me foreign spies, before
the whole of Europe. Then the accusation that I had made away
with state papers, which has never been contradicted. The ostenta-
tious way in which the Emperor William is constantly alluded to
and Fritz never, or only in a few short words. All the orders
which Fritz had given for new organisation of the Court cassirt,
his arrangements upset. Puttkamer decorated with the Black
Eagle ; Bergmann and Gerhardt received to dinner and decorated.
Treitschke, who called Fritz's reign em& traurige Episode, received
W.'s official thanks printed in the newspapers. General Mischke
and G. v. Roder simply dismissed. These and many other similar
things are what I have had to submit to, and which I resent.
They are not Klatsck but facts which will be recorded in his-
tory. The Geffcken affair, the treatment of Roggenbach, General
2C 385

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 v. Loe and Stosch. The table drawers broken open, the private
correspondence of these gentlemen stolen and published. The
Morier affair. These are a little too much to forgive, unless I am
righted again in the eyes of the public, and unless William begs
my pardon some day. These offences are not a year old — since
April he has not come near me and has written twice.

For all that, I wish peace to reign and do nothing in the world
to provoke him, or give rise to any difficulties for the present,
and keep out of the way of a regime for which I have die pro-
foundest contempt and the greatest disgust — for the public good
and that of our two countries. I rejoice when matters go smoothly
between England and Germany, and think it a blessing, but all the
while I know that the " Entente " could and would have been a
very different one under beloved Fritz, and more to be depended
on than the momentary caprices of Prince Bismarck and William.

On the whole I trust die visit to England has done good in
many ways. It will take years before I can feel less sore, and though
I may feel no resentment later against him personally yet I can
never excuse, or approve of what he has done, of the principles
he governs with, or the people that surround him.

Excuse this lengthy explanation. I promise you I will be very
good and not feel unversoknUcJi towards him ; but some day I
must be righted in the eyes of Germany^ and the calumnies must
be refuted which are still believed, and which W. chooses to
believe to a great extent.

386

CHAPTER XV

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

THE differences that had arisen between the Emperor 18
William and Prince Bismarck in the May of 1889 became
considerably accentuated during the course of the follow-
ing months, and as the year came to its close it became
evident that another " Chancellor-crisis " was sooner or
later inevitable. In the fierce struggle for power and
mastery that ensued, the Empress Frederick took no part,
though its result was bound to affect her own fortunes
and happiness. In none of her letters does she give any
indication of taking sides with either of the contestants,
and it was mainly of other matters that she wrote to her
mother during this period.

Of particular interest to her, however, was a somewhat
peculiar matrimonial tangle. In the year 1888 Prince Bis-
marck had appointed as German Ambassador to London
Count Paul von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg, who had married
years earlier Helen, the daughter of Mr. Charles Moulton
of New York and Paris. They had been divorced in 1886.
In the following years, however, Count and Countess
Hatzfeldt's daughter Helene became friendly with Prince
Max of Hohenlohe-Oehringen, whose desire to marry
was checked by the fact that he wished to avoid the social
stigma which then attached to the daughter of divorced
parents. As a result of this, Count and Countess Hatz-
feldt desired to remarry, but there were legal and other

387

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 difficulties in the way, not the least of which was Prince
Bismarck's opposition. The Empress Frederick, who had
sought the aid of Queen Victoria in this matter, now
wrote to her mother on September 13, 1889 :

I saw Paul Hatzfeldt the day before yesterday and he was so
grateful to you. He speaks with the tears in his eyes. It will all
be right in a week or two, and he will at least have a home and
his children can talk of their home and parents without blushing.

Prince Bismarck and his son have played a most odious part
in all this, and now make "William believe that they never made
difficulties, whereas the very reverse Is the truth. A promise, a
given word, is nothing to them and never meant to be kept. I know
that and have learnt it to my cost in twenty-five years. Lies are
considered quite legitimate. At any rate these two gentlemen seem
to grow fat on them, whilst those who were gentlemen enough
to believe them have fallen victims. Fritz Holstein and Arnim are
in their graves, Sandro has been driven to desperation, Keudell
nearly died, Roggenbach can hardly get over it, and GefFcken is
annihilated. Hatzfeldt would have added one to the list, but the
fates have willed it otherwise at the last moment. If William had
people like Ct. Hatzfeldt and Keudell and Prince Radolin about him^
he would not live in a world of fiction about so many things as he
does. But the net is so inextricably knit which surrounds him that
it is useless to attempt to put the truth before him now. One must
have patience — later perhaps it may be done. Hatzfeldt is never
allowed to be alone with him. None of my friends have access
to him, while our declared enemies and those who have behaved
worst to us are about him. Under such circumstances my life and
position are very odious and painful. But I know it cannot be
otherwise for the present and am determined to bear it with as
much calmness, patience and philosophy as I can. Every remon-
strance, every appeal to truth and justice, or better feeling, would
only make them enjoy the game of bullying me still more. I am
powerless while they wield the weapon of authority and abuse
their power to any extent. . . .

A fortnight later the Empress wrote again to her
mother (September 27, 1889) :
388

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

When I saw Hatzfeldt at Homburg, he told me that his " Civil " 18
marriage would take place as soon as he had the formal written
consent from the Foreign Office, or from the Chancellor (I do not
know which of the two he meant), and that he hoped to receive
this document in ten days, or a fortnight, which time must now
have elapsed. Some one mentioned yesterday that Ct. Hatzfeldt's
Civil Training had taken place on the 22nd, but whether that is so,
I do not know ; I am inclined to doubt it.

What Sir Edward [Malet, British Ambassador at Berlin] alludes
to I do not know, but I am certain that if there is any doubtful
point still in the situation, it would be for the best if Sir Edward
talked it privately over with Ct. Hatzfeldt. That a piege is always
to be apprehended I have long known and, I believe, always said,
but Hatzfeldt is so cautious and prudent et si Jin, so calm and
quiet, that I imagine he will not fall into the traps they have always
dug for him. You can have no idea of the duplicity, the utter
want of faith and principle of Prince Bismarck, his son and their
band of employees at this Foreign Office.

To carry out their wishes and plans, their intentions — the web
of lies and intrigues, the number of persons used to weave them are
quite untold. William was drawn into this three years ago, without
having the experience or insight necessary in these things. You
remember how in his enthusiasm for Prince Bismarck's system, etc.,
he allowed himself to be used against his own parents. He trusts
those people, with all of whom Kessel is hand in glove, and they
know how to manage William ; so that no one, neither Hatzfeldt
nor anyone else, would have William's support and help against
any villainy which might be planned. I am in exactly the same
position! Prince Bismarck attacked me violently in his paid press
— before all Europe, calumniated our beloved Fritz's memory, and
all his party followed the lead. William never attempted to stop
it, never defended us, never caused the truth to be said, and their
lies succeeded!! Roggenbach, GefFcken, Loe, Morier, Stosch, Sir
M. Mackenzie are all proofs of the same fact that we are all
without any protection ; anything that this party choose to do, or
to say, they have the power of doing! They have now made the
most they could out of William's reception in England — it does
not surprise me and I knew it beforehand! They say that no
Sovereign was ever so feted, and that it was not true that anything
which had been done in Germany since March 1888 had ever been

389

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

disapproved of by public opinion in England, or by you ; this
was all an intrigue and merely a spiteful invention of mine,
of which their Emperor had plenty of opportunity of convincing
himself!

I cannot say it makes any very deep impression on me, as I
was so prepared for it by what Prince B. and his son said to me, —
the triumphant and defiant tone they adopted I

I am completely isolated and my life can only resolve itself
into one thing for the present : learning to endure with fortitude.
There is no one to defend, support, or help me, no one to ask
redress for the wrongs I have suffered and always suffer, because
all I do is systematically blamed and criticised.

Kind Hatzfeldt, with whom I also talked, said so truly that there
is nothing to be done, explanations, attempts at justification would
be of no use — as the net cast about William is too strong, he
would not be able, or even be allowed to hear the truth, or see
through all the cleverly wrought machinations to bring about a
certain conviction in his mind! Circumstances may change, people
may die, or go away, or others may by a happy accident gain his
ear, and then a time will come when perhaps justice may be done
to me! Perhaps I shall have ceased to care, or ceased to live.
Hatzfeldt always hopes and prays and thinks that in time you may
gain an influence on William, and perhaps Bertie might too, I
think. But, alas, the feeling that Bertie has had to give way, and
has completely got over the story of last year, makes them still
more daring and less afraid of offending — they think that they
can do what they like and explain it away after, and that everybody
is bound to accept their explanations! Believe me, the powers
that be only behave well to those of whom they stand in a certain
awe! They are insolent to all whom they are not afraid of! They
treat Russia with the utmost consideration and management.

As long as the two Bismarcks, Waldersee and Kessel have para-
mount influence, it is easy to see that I can only have a terrible
time of it! Even Stockmar and Lyncker,1 who are honest men
in their way, and whose part I have always taken, do not like me,
and you know how Charlotte and Bernhard have gone against
me, encouraged by the King of Saxony, Fritz of Baden, and even
the Empress Augusta, though personally she is quite nice to me!

1 Herr von Lynker, Court-Marshal to Emperor William II.

39°

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

This is the situation, it cannot be helped. In private families such 18
a situation could hardly exist! Wronged and persecuted as I have
been, I could have appealed to you and all my brothers and sisters
to seek redress for me and to fight my battles with me! But this
I could not do in my position. England must appear to ignore
what are affairs of the German Court and see that the relations
between the two great countries be not disturbed or affected by
family affairs! Both out of courtesy and political reasons my
brothers — English Princes — cannot be as outspoken with the
Emperor of Germany as if he were someone else. . , .

This, my defenceless position, is, of course, greatly to Prince
Bismarck's convenience and he and his party take as much advan-
tage of it as they can. Our friends have never been blind partisans
of his Government, and the blows he deals at them, he deals at me.
I am not complaining and hope I do not bore you too much with
all this. I thought you might care to hear from me, now I am
here, what I feel the situation to be!

Another time I will write and tell you what I think of the
political situation here; I never remember the outlook having
been as dark as it is now, because it is so utterly without hope!
The Bismarck system and policy will not disappear when he does,
as William has identified himself with it ; but I trust that when
Prince Bismarck dies the bad measures will be more successfully
fought and opposed, as his prestige will no longer be there to bear
everything down before it. For foreign policy his death would
be no gain, as his name still keeps Germany's foes in check, and
at his age he is so determined to prevent war, he is cautious and
his cunning is very useful in avoiding things which give offence.
Waldersee is imprudent and thoughtless and William utterly so,
and so we should have rushed or blundered into no end of danger-
ous enterprises (viz. Visit with the King of Italy to Alsace-Lorraine,
Colonial enterprises in Africa, etc.) so thatperhaps Prince Bismarck's
still being where he is, is in some ways a good thing though it in-
creases tenfold the dangers in home affairs! The despotism and
chauvinism, the retrograde movement in all things cannot fail to
exasperate those who are not simply actuated by self-interest.

The enormous sacrifice the nation is called upon to make for
the Army creates a deep-seated discontent in the masses of the
people, of which William is totally unaware, and for which
Bismarck cares nothing.

391

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 Her letter continued with a reference to her recent
visit to Denmark, where she found :

The Queen of Denmark most kind and amiable — she adores
the Russians. The King was charming as always. Frederick's
oldest son is a bright boy and very nice. . . . Dear Alix [later
Queen Alexandra] was the flower of the flock with her two sweet
girls. Dear Tino [Constantme of Greece] and Georgy [later High
Commissioner of Crete] are certainly the finest of the young men,
and also the most intelligent. Alix of Greece was sweet and dear,
but like wax, so terribly anaemic. She and Paul seem very happy.
The noise they all made, and the wild romps they had were simply
indescribable. . . . Once or twice I was obliged to laugh right
out when they were all carrying each other. It was certainly a very
novel and original sight, very absurd sometimes, and they seemed
happier and to enjoy themselves more thoroughly than children of
five or six. Tino and Georgy are as strong as two young Hercules !
I only wonder no arms or legs were broken. The Queen of Den-
mark's furniture must be unusually strong — one sofa, I believe,
had to have the springs renewed at different times. . . .

Finally, the Empress concluded her long epistle with
a shrewd comment upon Bismarck's attitude towards
England at this period :

Hatzfeldt [she wrote] is eyed with much jealousy and they
would be glad to play him some trick if they could, but he is
always on the alert.

To make quite plain what I said before, Prince Bismarck of
course encourages all that now is a demonstration of civility to the
English Government. He wishes his Germans clearly to under-
stand that he was only inimical to an England which sympathised
with the Emperor Frederick and with which any other rapports
existed except those arranged, suggested and sanctioned by him!
The England which sympathised with the present regime and his
Government alone, is the one that he wishes to be friends with
and will certainly be friendly to!! This was the meaning of the
storm he raised in April 1888, and in June and July of the same
sad year, and of the campaign against Morier. I think he has
great confidence in Lord Salisbury and also in Lord Rosebery ;
392

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

the latter he takes for a pure Bismarckite, and is perhaps not 18
altogether mistaken I I do not envy Lord Salisbury, but certainly
his way of" getting on " with Bismarck is admirable, and he shows
a patience, tact and sagacity which are very great.

Fritz always looked to Hatzfeldt as the future Minister for
Foreign Affairs ; and certainly he is the only one I know who
could succeed the Chancellor for that branch of affairs ; but, of
course, I see no chance of his being selected. If ever Bismarck
retires, his dreadful son is certain to succeed him ; it will be such
a pity.

A few weeks later Count and Countess Hatzfeldt were
remarried, and in the early months of 1890 they had the
satisfaction of seeing their daughter become Princess Max
of Hohenlohe.

On October 27, 1889, another wedding took place,
that of the Princess Sophie to Prince Constantine, Duke
of Sparta. The Empress Frederick, the sovereigns of
Greece, Denmark and Germany, the Prince and Princess
of Wales, and the Tsarevitch of Russia were all present
at the ceremony in Athens, whence the Empress that day
wrote to Queen Victoria :

In the midst of all this bustle and hurry I must write you a
few words to say that the wedding is over and that all has gone
off very well. Tino and his little wife are in their new house, a
tiny place, smaller than Osborne Cottage (a good deal), but light
and cheerful and comfortable — arranged like a little French villa,
reminding me much of our " Villa Zirio " at San Remo. My
darling Sophie looked so sweet and grave and calm, my little lamb,
and I felt — oh, so miserable during the Service, thinking of my
beloved Fritz and how he would have liked to see his child and
how we should have comforted one another at having to part
with her. Her dress and wreath became her so well. Her neck and
throat looked so white and pretty, and the wreath fitted so nicely
and close round her head. The gown was of white satin with a
tablier of cloth of silver trimmed with lilies on lace and garlands
of orange blossom and myrtle. The train was of white satin
embroidered all over with silver thread in a Genoese design

393

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 of the i6th century. The only contretemps was the veil having
disappeared. It most likely was forgotten at Berlin. She had to
wear a plain tulle one. She had a necklace of pearls round her
neck and a few diamond pins in her hair to keep on the veil. The
ceremony in the Greek Church was very long, but I thought it
solemn and impressive, and the church though modern is fine.
All the Bishops with their round mitres and long beards looked
very well. All the arrangements were very well made. The King
himself had settled everything. The weather was splendid, like
on your Jubilee Day, but not too hot; there was pleasant air.
We drove in our low gowns in open carriages. I drove with dear
Bertie, which was a great comfort to me. How much I thought
of you and dear Papa and my wedding when I saw the dear young
people standing at the Altar. They held a lighted taper each and had
to walk three times round the Altar (as you know). The Protestant
Service was very short, but nice in the little Chapel here. The
King's Chaplain and Kogel officiated, the former married the young
couple and the latter gave the blessing and said a prayer; two short
chorales were sung and then we went upstairs to a family luncheon.
I felt dreadfully upset, but tried to be brave. The Queen of Den-
mark and dear Olga were most kind and good to me. After the
lunch Sophie appeared in a very pretty and becoming white and
gold dress and bonnet, and drove away through the town. Poor
Moretta and Mossy could keep up no longer and sobbed bitterly.
Olga, the King and I hastened on foot to Sophie and Tino's house
to receive them there, Olga blessed them and gave them a picture
of our Saviour to kiss (which is the custom), and then we left them
in their new abode where they are now resting until the Gala
Dinner when they will appear again. Sophie's train was carried
by Dita Perponcher, Mdlle de Perpignan & Mdlle Soutso, her
new Lady-in- Waiting.

Victoria of Wales has been unwell and could not appear, but
she was up and came to see Sophie and sat in the Protestant Chapel.
Olga is in great beauty just now; she has the face of a Madonna.
The Queen of Denmark is wonderful to be able to stand all this
fatigue. My dear KleeUatt, my trio as you used to call them, is
broken up now and I feel it bitterly. I suppose one will go after
the other, but it will be hard indeed when the day comes. When
I look at my poor Moretta and think what might have been
and ought to have been, it gives me a great pang, especially when
394

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

I see Sophie with her Tino. Tino was delighted with your lovely 18
fruit baskets and will thank you himself as soon as he possibly
can. . . .

The Empress now continued her holiday in Italy, but
even whilst holidaymaking the Empress's mind would
turn again and again to those tragic events of the preced-
ing year. Even had she wished to forget them it would
have been difficult to do so in view of the constant stream
of articles and pamphlets dealing with the illness and
death of the Emperor Frederick. One of these in particular
caused her much perturbation. Towards the close of the
year the celebrated German novelist Gustav Freytag pub-
lished a volume of reminiscences under the title of Der
Kronprin^ und die cteutsche Kaiserkrone. The Empress
had made Freytag's acquaintance in the early years of her
married life and he had early been the confidant and
friend of her husband. Her uncle, Duke Ernest of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha, was also a great friend and patron of the
talented novelist. Now, in his reminiscences, Freytag
drew such a picture of the dead Emperor that it could
not fail to distress the ex-Empress. Freytag averred that
the Emperor Frederick as Crown Prince was subjected to
foreign influence and entirely under the sway of his pro-
British wife, and it was insinuated that through the Crown
Princess, Princess Alice and other members of the British
royal family, important German military secrets had
reached the French commanders during the course of the
Franco-German War.1 The letters of the Crown Princess
published in this present volume, and the publication of
the Emperor Frederick's War Diary of 1870-71 in 1922
are sufficient to disprove these baseless innuendoes, but at
that time they were accepted by the majority of Germans as

1 The Empress Frederick : A Memoir, p. 328.

395

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1 889 indications of the truth, and neither Bismarck nor the Em-
peror William made any step to contradict the delicately
veiled charges. Frey tag, in fact, was warmly complimented
in high quarters on his libellous work. On December 14,
1889, the Empress wrote to her mother from Naples :

... It is significant indeed that poor Geffcken, whose publica-
tion was a piece of indiscretion and imprudence, was imprisoned
and ail our friends made the subject of persecution because it was
done with a view to show the people what dear Fritz was. Of
course, Geffcken had no business to do so, but the intention was a
good one. Now what Freytag writes is in a spirit of denigrement
to show the world that Fritz was overrated and I a danger to
Germany. For this Freytag has been complimented and remains,
of course, quite unmolested because this acceptation suits the
government — my own son's government. Uncle Ernest con-
gratulated Freytag and asked him to dinner at his Minister's.
Uncle Ernest is quite delighted with the book.

There was a Director of the Gotha Museum, a Doctor Alden-
hoven, of whom we always had a high opinion. He was well known
to Fritz Holstein and poor Fanny Reventlow. He is a sincere
Liberal and one of the very few honest and respectable men in
Uncle's service. Old Seebach liked him also. Now Aldenhoven
has resigned because Uncle sent him word that it would com-
promise him (Uncle) in William's eyes if a Liberal deutsch Frei-
smniger remained in his service. Is it not disgusting to see how
Uncle pays his court to Bismarck, William, etc. He ought to be
too proud and independent, but alas, I fear Uncle is capable of
anything and everything that is undignified now.

I hear now this Freytag is going to bring out a Biography of
Normann — this annoys me very much, as Normann was in our
house for upwards of 20 years. It is sure to touch upon things
connected with us, and in a spirit which will not be what I should
wish, and I dread new disagreeables. . . .

A few days later the Empress received a great and
unpleasant shock. Among the papers of the Emperor
Frederick which had been taken from Friedrichskron
396

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

the day after his death there was a sealed letter addressed i
to the Empress containing his wishes regarding his funeral
and other matters. For eighteen months this letter was
held back from her owing to an " oversight "? and it was
not until December 17, 1889, that the Empress received
this pathetically intimate letter. Three days later she
wrote to Queen Victoria from Naples :

I think you will feel for me, dear Mama, when I tell you what
a shock I had three days ago, which upset me most terribly. I
received a letter from William's Hofmarschall, H. von Lynker, who
was formerly with us, and opened the cover quite unconsciously
— it contained a sealed letter directed to me — in my darling Fritz's
handwriting. This letter to me contained his wishes, directions
and orders about his funeral and all that was to be done — and
not done, and what he specially forbids ; begging me to see that
this be carried out.

This letter Lynker had had all the time in a box which he had
forgotten to open and look through and now examined by accident.
It made me quite ill and reminded me of those terrible days and
how they refused to listen to my prayers and entreaties to leave
those dear, sacred, precious remains of my darling undisturbed.
How brutally and cruelly those whom I will not name behaved to
me. Perhaps they would not have dared had I been able to show
this letter; though William ignored other letters expressing his
father's wishes, and though they seemed to dare everything that
was shameful and bad.

I felt sure Fritz must have left some directions, but as you
know, none were ever found, and now a year and a half after,
they are found in William's Hofmarschairs box!

I have not been able to sleep properly since, I am still so upset.
Lynker is much distressed. I am certain he did not mean it at all
and it was an oversight, pure carelessness and accident, but it gives
me great pain. I told him that I bore him no grudge. But my
wrongs and woes rise up again in my memory with a vividness
which is an agony.

The effect of the publication of Freytag's reminis-
cences was to cause a recrudescence of the bitter contro-

397

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 versies over the Emperor Frederick's actions and Ideals,
and a Doctor Harmening entered the lists on behalf of
the dead Emperor. Unfortunately, he gave Duke Ernest
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha the opportunity to charge him
with libellous statements, and in the result the Doctor
was sentenced to six months' imprisonment. Harmening's
pamphlet had been written as a counterblast to another
pamphlet in which the belittling of the late Emperor was
carried to a further pitch, and the Empress, rightly or
wrongly, thought that this scandalous publication was
due to her pro-Bismarckian uncle, Duke Ernest. On
December 24, 1889, the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria
from Naples :

Another thing which has sadly annoyed me is that the man (a
Doctor Harmening, not personally known to me) has lost the law-
suit in which Uncle Ernest had him accused of libel. It is a great
pity. Uncle was very sly and supported by clever lawyers. The
result is, that Uncle, who is the author of that villainous pamphlet,
escapes free, whereas the man who boldly defended Fritz, me and
you, and spoke up in a manly tone, is sent to prison for six months
and has to pay the costs. Uncle considers this a new triumph. It
is deeply regretted by all our friends in Germany. I send you a
newspaper extract containing the trial. Uncle, who has avowed,
to people I know, having written the monstrous pamphlet against
us, now finds himself sheltered from public indignation, by avoid-
ing letting the proofs be found. This result is most unfortunate
and unjust, but it is pretty well known now everywhere that he
is the author and that Dr. Harmening, as ill luck would have it, was
not able to prove it and bring it home to him. I could if I liked,
but of course would not and could not do such a thing against
Papa's own brother, and also for Alfred's sake — besides the disgust
at creating such a scandal. Uncle, knowing all this, allows the man
to be condemned for libel who has only spoken the truth.

A fortnight later the Empress returned to Berlin for
the funeral of the Empress Augusta, her mother-in-law,
398

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

who had died suddenly on January 7. On January n 1889
the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria :

I ought to have written yesterday, but I was so knocked up
with the journey that I felt both shaken and excited and my eyes
sore, so I hope you will excuse me. We rushed away from Rome
on the most lovely day, warm and fine, a deep blue cloudless sky,
the place looking so splendid in its stately beauty. The King and
Queen and many friends whom I was so sorry to leave were at
the station. The journey reminded me cruelly of the one from
San Remo. . . .

William was at the station and I made him take me to my
house — the empty desert silence in all the rooms made my heart
ache. I just changed my clothes and went to the Schloss and into
the Chapel where the poor Empress lay in her coffin, which looked
like a bed as it was so covered with flowers. You would have
thought she was just going to a f£te, or a soiree, her face was so
calm and peaceful and had grown younger. There seemed not a
wrinkle, and the eyes that used to stare so and look one through
and through were closed, which gave her a gentler expression than
I ever saw in life. Her false hair in ringlets on her brow, the line
of the eyebrows and eyelashes carefully painted as in life — a golden
myrtle wreath on her head and an ample tulle veil, very well
arranged, flowing and curling about her head and neck and
shoulders, hiding her chin, her hands folded, her bracelets on and
her wedding ring. The cloth of gold train lined and trimmed with
ermine which she wore for her golden wedding was very well
folded and composed about her person and over her feet, and
flowed far down the steps in front. She looked wonderfully well
and really almost like a young person. I felt that if she could have
seen herself she would have been pleased. She was " the Empress "
even in death and surrounded with all the stiff pomp and ceremony
she loved so much.

Still I think there is something indescribably touching about
that last sleep and the expression it sometimes gives to counten-
ances. Only one I could not bear to think of, and it half kills me
to remember, and that was my angel — her son.

Yesterday evening at 9 o'clock I was there again (but without
the children) to take leave, and attend a short service before the
closing of the coffin. The Schloss Chapel was suffocatingly hot

399

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

and all filled with lights. There was a number of the family there,
and I felt so lonely, so helpless among them all, and among all
those Court officials. No one took me up or down stairs and one
feels so set on one side, so forgotten, that to all my pain it gives
me a feeling of bitterness difficult to describe. Dona means quite
kindly, I suppose, but her grand condescending airs aggravate one
so much. . . . How all this would have affected Fritz. He would
have felt his poor mother's death terribly. His kind and tender
heart gave more affection than he received.

The Empress Frederick now hoped that at last she
might be of some little use again, and she was especially
desirous of taking up the Red Cross and hospital work,
which had been continued since 1871 under the direction
of the Empress Augusta. But here again she was to be
disappointed, for the Emperor calmly ignored her, and
made his wife, the Kaiserin, head of the various societies
in which the Empress Augusta had taken so much interest.
On January 13 die Empress Frederick wrote :

I am indeed distressed not to be able to send a line with General
Gardener, but yesterday I had to receive people all day long ; I
could not find a moment for writing. I was going to tell you what
has hurt my feelings so much. The Empress Augusta was at the
head of the Red Cross Society and the Vaterlaniischer Fratten-
verein. These are very large societies and might be made exceed-
ingly useful if well and efficiently worked and directed. Ever since
1870 it had been Fritz's great wish and his intention that I should
succeed the Empress Augusta in this capacity whenever she felt
too tired, etc., to go on with it, or in case of her death. I have
for years taken trouble to prepare everything for this, as General
v. Bronsart, Prof. Esmark, the Duke of Ratibor, Wegner and
others can tell you ; and when my affliction came, everyone who
was not my direct enemy rejoiced at the thought that tids branch
of activity and usefulness would be left me, as everything else,
LouisenorJen, Stiftfatten, etc., has passed to Dona, who has all
the social duties, representations, etc. I wrote to Louise of Baden
about it last year. I also asked Count SeckendorfF to speak to
Kneseback. It was I who helped the Empress Augusta with the
400

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

sick and wounded in 1864, 1866 and 1870-1871, and since then I 18
have continued to study the subject. On arriving the other morning
I spoke to William and said that I was ready now to take over
these two Societies — of course, I did not mention the Augusta
Hospital nor the Augusta Stift, as I thought Dona would have
the patronage. He answered, "You need not trouble yourself
about it, my wife arranged with the Empress Augusta a year ago
that she would take her place and also take Knesebeck into her
service ".

Therefore my daughter-in-law and my mother-in-law both
thought fit to ignore me and cut me out, and to prevent my having
a work which would, of course, become very important in time and
give me a certain amount of influence. My gentlemen and ladies
are so annoyed and shocked that they can hardly believe it. You
see how I am treated, dearest Mama, and how much the assurances
of William are worth when he says he wishes to do everything to
please me. It will take me a long while to get over this. Please
say nothing about it; the thing is done. The Stocker party, into
whose hands all these things will fall, more or less triumph and
rejoice at this new affront to me. The thing is done and in the most
offensive way to my feelings, so there is no use saying a word more
about it, it only makes it impossible for me in " Charities **, etc.,
to work with Dona— this I should refuse to do. I have a little
experience, not so much as I should like, but certainly more and
I believe, without vanity, a little more education and knowledge
than Dona, so that it will be to the detriment of the interests of the
public and also prevent these Societies from developing into what
they might be. In the case of war, which Heaven prevent, I should
simply have nothing to say, and be under Dona's orders, a thing
I should most certainly not submit to. Pray excuse my troubling
you with these affairs of mine — they are, of course, very insignifi-
cant compared with larger and more general interests ; but I think
you too will be sorry that I should have the grievous disappoint-
ment and this treatment at the hands of my mother-in-law and
my children. Poor Empress, she is gone and I do not harbour any
feeling against her that is not kind or right; on the contrary I feel
that she was Fritz's mother and that he would have mourned her
loss most sincerely, but after having been her daughter-in-law for
over thirty years, I think that a proof of her confidence or affection
would have been versohnend after all I have gone through, and
2D 401

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1889 that it -would also — in Dona and William's eyes — have done me
good.

It now became evident that there were elements in
Germany which were becoming more and more dis-
satisfied with the dictatorial and autocratic regime of the
Emperor and Prince Bismarck, especially with regard to
their treatment of the press. Finally, utterance was given
to these sentiments in the Reichstag by Prince Henry
Carolath, who, in the January of 1890, voiced the grow-
ing dissatisfaction. On January 26 and January 31 the
Empress Frederick wrote to her mother :

... I send you an extract from a newspaper containing a
speech made in the Reichstag by Prince Carolath, to whom Fritz
was always very kind, and who has the courage, as you will read,
to censure a state of things which, while muzzling the press in
every way, allows attacks on Fritz and me and you — such as
contained in Uncle Ernest's vile pamphlet — to go unnoticed and
people who protest against the lies in these pamphlets to be sent to
prison for having libelled Uncle Ernest. It is very honourable of
Prince Carolath to have spoken up ; it will draw down the wrath
of the Government and die Court upon him, but all honest and
unprejudiced people will applaud him.

I send you [she wrote again on January 31] this article about
Prince Carolath's excellent speech and Uncle Ernest's shameful
pamphlets. The matter is not at rest and Uncle has caused Tempel-
tey to deny that he (Uncle) has ever written them. He boasted
before of having done so, and I told you in 1887 of the mischievous
effect of this pamphlet (the first one) and of how my three eldest
children believed every word of what William then said. It sowed
the seeds of distrust in William's mind against his father and me —
this was fostered by the Bismarck party and false ambitious people,
and so perverted William's ideas that it caused him to do all he did
in 1887-1888. It will take years to clear the nonsense and lies out
of his head and show people and things to him in their true light,
as there is no one about him who could have a good and wise
influence and also the authority to convince him of all the mis-
402

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

apprehensions he was a victim of and still labours under. As long 1890
as Prince B. lives, as long as Herbert and H. v. Kessel remain about
him and he believes them, of course, it would be hopeless to
attempt to clear things up. They have weapons with which a
simple outsider cannot compete ; and besides it is of the utmost
importance to them not to be shown up.

One must have patience and keep quite quiet and say nothing.
The day will come perhaps when the truth will come to light, and
to attempt to hurry on that day would be to spoil all. ...

Uncle Ernest has much to answer for. His behaviour to you,
to Fritz and to me is simply disgraceful ; it is too grievous, as we
have all been so kind to him and really fond of him and I never
thought he had a bad heart, though I always knew he was most
unscrupulous and unprincipled and had an imagination which
played him the most extraordinary tricks. . . .

Meanwhile, Bismarck, ever the avowed opponent of
Socialism, was seeking an amendment of the repressive
Socialist Law of 1873, which definitely combated Social-
ism, in such a manner as to continue its provisions in-
definitely. This brought about a sharp difference of
opinion between him and the Emperor William, who
pointedly remarked that so far from wishing to handicap
the working classes, he wished to be like Frederick the
Great wi rot desgueux* In spite of the Emperor's opposi-
tion, however, a bill for amending the law was introduced
in October 1889, but was rejected on January 25, 1890,
and parliament was now closed by the Emperor. A few
days later, on February 4, the Emperor issued two re-
scripts in which he urgently recommended action for the
improvement of the condition of the working classes,
and towards this end suggested the co-operation of
England, France, Belgium and Switzerland. It was on
February 15 that the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria
from Berlin:

1 The ex-Kaiser William IL's My Memoirs^ p. 37.

403

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 I know absolutely nothing of what is going on — except what
I read in the newspapers, or can only pick up from one of my
friends. When I visit William, which is very seldom, we talk of
the weather so that I am very much more out of everything than I
was when I arrived here a girl of 17! ! Of course, this is unavoid-
able since all that happened two years ago.

This playing at State Socialism appears very dangerous to me
and always has! My beloved Fritz was so much against the passing
of the Socialist Law! He foresaw what the Liberal party always
foresaw and which has now happened, i.e. it would only encourage
the growth of Socialism and teach the Socialists to organize them-
selves into a body secretly. This is now done. They have grown
with extraordinary rapidity even since last year, and all the miners
who sent a deputation to William last year have since joined the
Socialists. For years Bismarck and his party have prevented William
from seeing with other eyes than theirs. He (William) is absolutely
ignorant! He has never studied politics or these questions, which
are so serious ! He hardly knows a single political man. Of the
Liberals in Germany he does not know one!!! He always was
taught to avoid all our friends, and now there is no one to tell him
the truth. He never asks what his father thought and would have
done, but takes the advice of the oddest and most incompetent
people — whom he meets by accident and who are mere amateurs.
How true is the proverb, " Fools rush in where angels fear to
tread ". This new Staatsrath is made up of the strangest and
most incongruous elements and not one member of the Liberal
party!! Men who have spent their lives amongst the working
classes, who have watched the whole of the development of the
so-called " social question " (such a stupid word) for the last thirty
years, who represent no class interests, and want absolutely nothing
for themselves, and are anxious to save William from danger, for
his father's sake, are ignored! They have no means of approach-
ing him or of making their views heard, of giving a timely word
of warning. Prince Bismarck, whose fault the present situation is, of
course sees the rashness of what is done and does not approve it!
He often talks of retiring — right and left! I think he counts upon
William getting into a dreadful mess and a scrape, and his then
being appealed to to put everything what he thinks straight again.
He is so shrewd that he understands marvellously how to make
the best for himself out of other people's mistakes — also out of
404

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

his Sovereign. William is so green that he makes blunders which 1890
take one's breath away. He is perfectly delighted with himself,
and the flattery which is continually lavished upon him makes
him think himself a genius!! It makes me very unhappy to see
my own child surrounded with dangers and rushing headlong into
things of which he does not understand the drift! He listens to
Hintzpeter on the subject of Christian Socialism. His ideas are very
good to listen to, but, alas, too doctrinaire and theoretical to be the
only ones to go by. After all Hintzpeter is not a political man by
profession. He is extremely kind and charitable to the poor, but he
has a one-sided view of the question. William also listens to a Count
Douglas (a great donkey) and Geheimrath v. Heyden, an amiable
man, a painter, who was a miner thirty years ago. How all this will end
I do not know! I think the proclamation most unconstitutional, and
it is not counter-signed. No one knows what to make of it ! Those
who have, as I have, watched the unwholesome development of
German politics for the last twenty years, cannot be surprised at the
muddle and mess and confusion they are in now, and a young, totally
inexperienced, totally ignorant man at the head of affairs, who is a
very great despot and wields a great power and has no wise heads
about him. Coquetting with the " mob " and making independent
men hold their tongues always has been part of Prince Bismarck's
programme as it was the Emperor Napoleon IIL's.

However, if this curious Staatsrath only does a little good, one
may be glad. But I fear there are troublous and stormy days ahead
for Germany! . . .

The parliamentary elections early in 1890 resulted in
an increased Socialist representation in the German parlia-
ment. Meanwhile, England, France, Belgium and Swit-
zerland had considered the Emperor William's proposals
for an international agreement on questions affecting the
working classes, and a Labour Conference was mooted.
On February 19 the Empress wrote :

Is it not rather embarrassing to know what to do about this
international Labour Conference ? I think it is very imprudent
and ill-advised to come forward with an international scheme before
having privately enquired whether the different Governments find

405

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 it convenient or possible to accept proposals! It is true the Labour
question exists in every country alike, but still under very different
conditions. A Conference of this kind, or a Congress, is very dif-
ferent from a " postal telegraph " or " monetary " Conference — or
from a scientific Congress! One must be a very great authority
on these subjects, or possess a vast experience to venture on such
a step as a proposal to settle this question. To stir it up with-
out arriving at some very striking, important and satisfactory
result, is the worst thing that could be done. It raises expectations
doomed to be disappointed and excites the masses instead of calm-
ing them, which is the very thing to be avoided and will lead to a
struggle here — to coercion — and perhaps violence — and then re-
action. Prince Bismarck sees this most likely — does he wish it or
not ? Will it profit 'him and his party in the end or not ? I cannot
tell you! I think Cardinal Manning makes a great mistake in ex-
tolling William's step to such a degree. How differently beloved
Fritz would have gone to work and handled these delicate danger-
ous questions! There is such a difference between courage and
foolhardiness. How much study and knowledge, experience and
wisdom and good counsel are necessary for great reforms ! Why
not assemble the best heads in Europe to discuss these questions
unofficially and privately — such as Sir L. Mallet, M. de Lavalaye,
M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, and many others? The question
would ripen gradually, and by consulting the German Liberals, who
are the most learned of all, one might arrive at a conclusion which
William's Government might submit to the Reichstag. Now I
fear there will be much confusion and very little result. There is
too intimate a connection between economic questions and the
Labour question to be able to solve one quite without the other!
I think such men as Lord Brassey and Lord Armstrong would
admit that Prince Bismarck's protectionist policy, which William
admires so much without understanding it, is at the bottom of
many of the evils we are suffering under — the high prices of food,
etc., which are dreadful for the working classes, of course make
low wages much worse, and consequently the amount of hours
of work too great But it is too vast a subject to approach in a
few words. Fritz and I never ceased to study it, therefore it is
nothing new to me! " Look before you leap " I should like to
write in big letters over William's table — though it would be of
very little use, I fear.
406

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

Feb. 20. 1890

Prince Bismarck and his wife came to see me yesterday. He
spoke a long while on the subject of William's newest coup! He
also spoke of retiring soon, as he could not keep pace with inno-
vations so suddenly resolved on and carried out in such a hurry
and on the advice of people he thought in no way competent to
give it. I daresay he quite means what he says in this instance,
but I do not suppose his resignation would be accepted. It seems
to me that he was quite de bonne foi with William and that he tried
his best to dissuade him from an experiment which he thinks not
only a great risk, but for which he sees no likelihood of success.
Seeing that William was bent on it, especially at the instigation of
Hintzpeter, who told William he would find it "a mine of popu-
larity for himself and it would make him a great man, etc.", and
a Count Douglas (such a stupid man), a M. de Berlepsch (whom
therefore Prince Bismarck instantly proposed as Minister), and the
painter, G. v. Heyden, Prince Bismarck, as he said, concentrated his
endeavours on trying to make the step as harmless as he could ;
he re-wrote the Erlass and he begged that everything diplomatic
might be left out of the proposed international Congress or Con-
ference. So far, I think Prince Bismarck was very wise, and acted
very loyally towards William, and I could only agree with him!
Of course, he did not discuss principles of policy; with those you
know I could not agree. But I certainly think the advice he gave
William in this case was prudent and sensible and practical and I
am very sorry it was not taken.

I thought Prince Bismarck looked remarkably strong and well
and inclined to take things very philosophically. He is exceedingly
fond of William and he never was of Fritz (this is quite natural), but
I fancy he is uneasy at the very great self-confidence and the naivete
with which he exercises his will and takes responsibilities, and also
at the curious people who have access to him and are listened to.

Please look upon all this as confidential. I watch all these things
as a perfect outsider and impartial observer.

Pel. 21.

Since I wrote the above I see that poor Sir Louis Mallet is dead.

How very very sorry I am, he was such a distinguished man ! . . .

I have just received your dear letter by messenger, for which

so many thanks. Of course, everything done for the working

407

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 classes for their real good and their real interest is a step in the
right direction and one everybody would hail with pleasure. But
William has never troubled Ms head in the least about the poor, or
the working classes, and knows absolutely nothing about them, or
he would have consulted more people, tried to obtain more in-
formation and have carefully prepared the step he has taken. He
has never mentioned affairs or politics before me since 1888. I
should most certainly never make a remark before him — or offer
an opinion if it is not asked — after the way in which I have been
treated — the slights and insults and impertinences which I have
had to swallow! I should neither be understood nor listened to,
therefore I could do no goodl Perhaps the time may come, but
certainly it has not arrived.

He seeks no advice nor cares to know what his own parents
thought on these subjects — he fancies he is gifted with supreme
wisdom, therefore one must let him alone. Perhaps he will all the
sooner be inclined later to see things as they are, then I shall
certainly not refuse to make myself of use to him, but to take the
initiative would be a great mistake on my part and a want of
proper pride — and that is the last thing one clings to when all
else is taken from one. The adulation and flattery which is heaped
upon him you would hardly believe. His mother is the only one
who will not stoop to this — and is naturally considered a bore in
consequence. There are so many who are anxious to get rid of
me as the last remnant of Fritz's reign and of his ideas, that it is
only by remaining perfectly quiet and passive that I can be safe
from their accusations, their attacks and intrigues, and their con-
stant Hei^erei and rapportage at the Schloss.

I think, however, on the whole it is better and not worse, and
that they are less bent on persecuting me than they were, but the
terrain here is perfectly intolerable, — personal ambition, spite
and jealousy and intrigue are rife, and displayed with still more
impudence than they used to be. I think everyone feels this! But
as they see that I want nothing and do not care to have so-called
influence, and have no curiosity to know their doings and their
secrets, and that they cannot frighten or drive me away with
their shameful calumnies, they rather leave off throwing stones at
me — and think me harmless and sans consequence, which of course
makes William and Dona less suspicious and on the defensive, or
on the look out for offences, which really was quite unbearable.
408

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

"When we meet we are quite friendly and comfortable, and no 1890
one sees the wounds and the daggers in my heart — nor how
profoundly I feel all the wrongs Fritz and I have suffered.

A fortnight later, March 7, she wrote :

What a pity it is the Times makes such superficial and pre-
judiced remarks about our elections! The Freisinnige are not
republicans or democrats at all — they are as like English Whigs as
they can be — they want constitutional government — as little state
interference as possible — and free trade, no Socialism, no repressive
laws, no persecution of Jews or Catholics. Of course they do
grumble about the army budget sometimes and they oppose the
taxes on wheat, bread, tea and coffee. They are specially detested
by Prince Bismarck and consequently calumniated in every possible
way. I do not see why the Times should stick up for such unfair-
ness. The Cologne Gazette had an article on the 4th of this month
which I really think was the most abominable one I ever read. I
sadly fear it was inspired by Prince Bismarck's entourage.

I fear poor William thinks all will be very easy and that he
has only to dictate his wishes, etc. — a rather childlike idea. He is
most despotic and arbitrary in all his instincts and one cannot well
govern that way nowadays.

The path of an autocrat is strewn with difficulties, but
even if he succeeds in trampling them down he can never
work with or under another autocrat. The Emperor had
learnt from Bismarck the secrets of autocratic govern-
ment and was beginning to assert himself, with the in-
evitable result that they were gradually coming to logger-
heads over the Socialist question. On March 15 the
Empress wrote :

Today these delegates arrive on their curious mission. How one
does bless a Constitution like the British one, when one sees a young
man* totally without knowledge and experience, playing the despot,
without anything to prevent him from running into danger or mis-
chief. It would be a curious Nemesis if, for all his past sins, Prince
Bismarck were to fall, just the very time he happened to be in the

409

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 right — not one older man or older relation is there to give a little
timely advice, to warn and give a gentle hint, both in political and
important matters, or in family and court matters. If we could have
had William to ourselves the last four years, or if I had him even
now, a great deal could be prevented, and he would not be as blind
and ignorant as he is. I am sorry to say poor Dona is not a help but
an obstacle. Her pride is so great and she thinks she knows better
than everyone, because she is the Empress, and she is always
on the defensive and ridiculously exigeante. The flattery that is
lavished on both of them is enough to turn any lady's head and it
is no wonder that hers is turned. They never ask or consult me
on any one subject, great or small ; but only invite me to their
family dinner, just as they would an aunt or a cousin. They have
not a single wise or steady head about them ; some very respect-
able and well-meaning people, others who are dangerous and
intriguing, but not a single superior man or woman.

I am quite away and out of everything and know very little of
what goes on at the Schloss. I only meet William or Dona at
family dinners, amongst all the others, which, of course, are painful
occasions to me, and I try to make the hour pass pleasantly and
hide all my sad and bitter thoughts and feelings.

Dona enjoys her position intensely and her whole face expresses
the most intense satisfaction. She is convinced that all William
and she do and think and say is perfect, and this is certainly a state
of beatitude. She meddles in everything the family does, every
little trifle is reported to her, and she orders and directs in a way
very galling for the others from so young a person.

Three days later, on March 18, 1890, Prince Bismarck
suddenly resigned, and the Emperor appointed General
Georg von Caprivi in his place as Chancellor. Mean-
while, Queen Victoria had received the Empress Fred-
erick's letter of the 15th, and in her reply had asked why
it was that she had been " so keen " on Dona's marriage
to her son William. On March 22 the Empress replied :

. . . You say: why did I wish so much for William's marriage
and fight so hard to obtain it? Because amongst those young
Princesses I knew (as it was not thought advisable he should marry
410

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

a cousin) Dona seemed to me the most likely to make an excellent 1890
wife and mother. We had a great esteem and affection for her
father, who had great confidence in us and with whom we were
so intimate. I then hoped and thought she might be grateful and
affectionate to me and show me confidence — in that ray hopes
have been completely disappointed! She has quite forgotten, or
does not like to remember, or really does not understand what
she owes me. She has a great sense of duty, but she does not seem
to see what her duty towards me is! She is an excellent wife and
though not a judicious yet a devoted mother! I am glad to see
her so happy — and that she and William and the children are all
so prosperous, etc., and of course I am thankful for that, but for
myself, my comfort in my loneliness and sorrow, as a support,
they, alas, do not exist! This may change in time, though I much
doubt it. This is not the moment to try and open their eyes on
the subject of all I have had to endure, which they simply ignore.
If other people surrounded them and could explain it all to them
and show them how infamous the conduct of so many towards
us was in 1887-1888, against me in 1889, and how untrue were all
those accusations, I daresay they would feel sorry and also feel
differently and behave differently towards me, and I might then
forgive it all, though I could not forget it.

I cannot approve of the way in which Prince Bismarck's resigna-
tion came about and think it in some ways a dangerous experiment,
as I do raising this so-called " Social question " at this moment!
I am afraid nothing good will come of it! The love of playing the
despot and of showing off is very great. General Caprivi is a
General of whom Fritz thought a great deal, and whom he had
always hoped to have some day later as Minister of War! He is
an honest, straightforward, respectable man, of great energy — a
very stubborn and determined will, not given to any compromises
and rather violent. I should not think he understood politics in
the least, but he is incapable of saying what he does not mean, or
of an intrigue of any kind !

The system Bismarck [created] was intensely corrupt and bad, —
this, however, is not the reason that William wanted the change,
and this he does not even see through. The genius and prestige of
Prince Bismarck might still have been useful and valuable for Ger-
many and for the cause of peace, especially with so inexperienced
and imprudent a Sovereign, and I fear that he will be missed in

411

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 that respect, as I also fear that the combination which is to replace
him will not be strong enough! William fancies he can do every-
thing himself — you know he cannot — a little modesty and Selbst-
erkenntniss would show him that he is not the genius or the
Frederick the Great he imagines, and I fear he will get into trouble.
If Prince B, were to retire — a Ministry could have replaced him
with Prince Chlodwig Hohenlohe as Chancellor, Hatzfeldt as
Foreign Minister, Caprivi as Minister of "War and a Liberal as
Minister for Home Affairs — we should have had nothing to fear,
and could not look upon Prince Bismarck's retirement as a mis-
fortune! Wise and experienced and conciliatory men would have
had the confidence of Germany and of Europe, and in time, I am
sure, would have had the best influence on William, and the barrier
which exists between him and me would also soon have melted
away, and all the eminent men in Germany who were kept away
by the machinations of the Bismarck system would gradually have
come forward, their opinions would have been heard and discussed,
and an era of peace and stability would have commenced such as
Fritz's reign would have been! Now I see nothing but confusion
— sudden resolutions not sufficiently considered — suddenly carried
out, with a truly Bismarckian contempt for people's feelings, but
without the coup d'ceil de mcutre which Bismarck often hadl What
was wrong in him and what would be right to do now, William
does not see and there is no one to tell him, as all those are kept
away, or have been purposely discredited in William's eyes, who
could have advised him! You can imagine that I am not very
happy or comfortable about the state of things. . . .

Three days later (March 25, 1890) the Empress wrote :

Prince and Princess Bismarck came and took farewell, and
General Caprivi paid me a long visit, and I thought him extremely
sensible and only hope he may succeed ; but he is a very conscien-
tious man, and thoroughly in earnest, and if William means (as
he says sometimes) merely to have people who " obey him " and
" carry out his orders ", I fear he will find it very difficult, almost
impossible, to fulfil all the duties of his office, which in the eyes of
the nation has an immense responsibility! I am afraid William is a
most thorough despot and has some very queer ideas on this sub-
ject in his head. Prince Bismarck told me much that was very
412

THE FALL OF PRINCE BISMARCK

interesting to hear! He did not exactly complain, but I think he 1890
feels very deeply that he has not been treated with the considera-
tion due to his age and position. We parted amicably and in
peace, which I am glad of, as I should have been sorry — having
suffered so much all these long years under the system — that it
should appear as if I had any spirit of revenge, which I really
have not. Many feel the son's coming departure as a deliverance.
I think General Verdy Duvernoy was the principal instrument in
getting rid of Prince Bismarck. . . .

The fall of Bismarck, however, did not bring about
any of those political or social changes for which the
Empress Frederick had hoped. As she wrote to Queen
Victoria on March 29 :

. . . The confusion to me seems extreme, and the state of
things most anxious and unsatisfactory. Changes in those things
which were most to be regretted in Prince Bismarck's adminis-
tration are not contemplated, as I hear William wishes to have the
son [Herbert Bismarck] back again soon. It would be a very great
mistake. The only good I see in all that is being done, is having
so honest a man as General Caprivi at the head of affairs, but I
doubt very much whether he can or will remain.

The Conference, I believe, has worked quite well, but what
the result will be, and how much of that result will be carried out
and put into practice, is another question, to which I think but
few can give a sanguine answer. . . .

Whether or not the Empress was right in believing
that her son desired to retain the services of the younger
Bismarck as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Count Herbert
resigned on April i? and was succeeded in that office by
Baron Marschall von Bieberstein. A week later, on April
8, the Empress Frederick wrote to Queen Victoria :

I cannot tell you much about what is going on here in the way
of politics, but I look with alarm to the future! Everything must
be done in a hurry and be startling! and emanate or seem to
emanate from one source! I think a Ministry composed of Jules

413

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 Verne with Lord Randolph Churchill and Lord C. Beresford as
steadiest elements, and with General Boulanger and a few African
travellers (poor Mr. Gordon Gumming, if he were alive) and
certainly Richard Wagner, if he were alive, would be the sort that
would best suit the taste in high quarters, and we might no doubt
pass through phases most refreshing and sensational in their
novelty and originality, and adventures of all sorts would not be
wanting. Sometimes one does not know whether to laugh or to
cry! I wonder how long Caprivi will last and what he will be
able to do! He is a very steady man, honest and determined, very
conservative and very military!

The new Minister of Foreign Affairs has never so much as
written his name down in my book, nor has Herbert Bismarck
announced his Demission or been to take leave, which is very rude,
as he was Fritz's Minister, but I am heartily glad that I shall be
spared having to see him, or speak to him! . . .

It seems to me [she added in a postscript] that the German
Emperor is to be converted into a sort of Tsar, and Germany to
be governed by ukases.

Bismarck had fallen, William II. was now supreme,
but the event, instead of bringing the Empress Frederick
back into any position where she might usefully give
service to the country of her adoption, resulted in her
being, except for one brief and transient mission, relegated
to the furthest possible point in the German political and
social background.

414

CHAPTER XVI

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

THE fall of Bismarck, wide though its influence was upon 1890
the destiny of Germany, made for the moment little
change in the life of the Empress Frederick. It was true
that she had now no longer an inveterate enemy at the
head of the German Government, for the new Chancellor,
General von Caprivi, wisely abstained from interfering
in matters outside the scope of his office. But her son, the
Emperor William, although freed from the influence of
Bismarck, showed little sign of any slightly kindlier atti-
tude towards her ; and in all other respects her position
was unchanged. For her part, the Empress maintained
her attitude of non-interference in state affairs, and
occupied herself not only with the many works of charity
in which she had always taken a keen interest, but also
with those artistic activities which gave her so much
pleasure. One form that this activity took was the build-
ing of a house after her own heart, and it was at Cronberg
that she acquired an estate of a villa and a few acres from
Dr. Steibel, the son-in-law of Mr, Reiss, a Manchester
manufacturer, who had given it the name of the Villa
Reiss. Adjoining properties were also bought, so that the
estate was enlarged to about 250 acres. The Villa Reiss
was practically demolished, and in its place there gradu-
ally arose a model domus regalis which bore upon its front
porch the inscription " Frederici Memoriae ". The house

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 was designed by a celebrated German architect, Herr Ihne,
but was regarded by people in Germany as being rather
an English country-house than a German castle, and there
was some truth in this assumption, for the architect had
been advised to go to England by the Empress to study
the more modern houses. " Friedrichshof ", as the Em-
press's new residence was called, was completed in the
year 1893, but from 1889 to that date its planning, decora-
tion and development were a constant source of interest
to the Empress. It was here that she now housed the
large number of art treasures that she had acquired, and
there was ample reason for the comparison of the galleries
and saloons of the ground floor with the finest of the
German museums.

Here, at Cronberg, the Empress soon made hosts of
real friends among the inhabitants, and in an extremely
short space of time began to be regarded by them very
much in the same way as Queen Victoria was regarded
at Balmoral.

The Empress's retirement to Cronberg seemed to
emphasise her determination to give her enemies no
excuse for accusing her of meddling with political affairs,
yet she still continued to take a vivid interest in all that
concerned the welfare of Germany and her native land.
Particularly did the activities of her son, the Emperor
William, engage her attention, and when, on May 6, 1890,
he opened die new Parliament with a speech in which,
while professing an ardent desire for peace, he asked for
18,000,000 marks for the increase of the German army,
the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria four days later :

. . . The speech at the opening of the Reichstag has created
much disappointment in this part of Germany. Not only were
people astonished at the change of ministers not being mentioned,
416

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

but many another thing that was expected and hoped for was not
spoken of, such as the determination not to renew the Socialist
Law, the restitution of the Guelphfond, the abolition of the terrible
and useless passport vexations in Alsace on the French frontier ;
things that are just and necessary, that Fritz always intended to
carry out, and which would strengthen the present government
and make it popular, though no great reforms in themselves. . . .

It seemed, indeed, as if it was still the intention of the
Emperor William to ignore all that the Emperor Frederick
had planned or projected. It was therefore a pleasant and
touching experience for the Empress Frederick to learn
that her husband's memory was revered in Berlin and
that the town wished to erect a monument to his memory.
The Emperor William, however, refused to permit any
such thing, and it was with feelings of exasperation and
sorrow that the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria on
June 3, 1890 :

The town of Berlin wished, as you know, to erect a monument
to our beloved Fritz ; it is the first time they have done so for
one of their sovereigns ! They have the money already! They in-
formed me of this and I told them how much it touched me, and how
this token of loyal affection would have touched him much more
than a monument ordered, executed and paid for by the govern-
ment They sent in their plans and have been waiting over four
months for an answer, and now William has refused to grant them
the permission and says that the state will do it! This pains me
very much indeed, as such a spontaneous demonstration of respect
to Fritz's memory is a very different thing from a state order,
which is just as one would order a bridge, or new barracks, and it
ought to have been gratefully and graciously accepted. He might
also have asked me, or let me know, or have consulted me! The
town of Berlin said the monument should be made according to
my wishes. Now, of course, all is spoilt! William ignores my
existence in everything.

Queen Victoria's answer was to invite her daughter

to England, and to point out that as Berlin was already

2E 417

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 erecting a hospital in memory of the Emperor Frederick
a second monument was perhaps superfluous. To this
the Empress Frederick replied on June 13, 1890 :

So many thanks for your dear letter by messenger, which I
will answer today, as we leave tonight and I fear I shall have no
time to write tomorrow. What day may we arrive in England ?
The 28th ? You return from Balmoral on the 2<$th, I believe ? . . .

I think you misunderstood me about the monument for my
beloved Fritz. The town of Berlin gave a sum of money on
October i8th, 1888, to found an institution which was to bear his
name. I gave it to die children's hospital which is now being built.
This was a different thing! This was to be a large equestrian statue!
The State has ordered one of the Emperor William, and the town
of Berlin voted the money already last year to erect one to Fritz.
They had to ask leave and they did not wait a few months, as I
said last time, but a whole year for the answer, which has now
been given in the shape of a refusal, after I had told them how
pleased and grateful I was at the idea. That I should feel hurt
and aggrieved, you cannot wonder, as it again appears as if W.
did not wish historical evidence of Fritz's popularity to go down
to posterity. As history books for all the schools in Prussia are
arranged by the Ministerium, his life, his character, his views and
short reign can be made as little of as is thought advisable, and all
can be coloured as the present Government please! as they did
about his illness and his Diary, whereas I should like the truth
known and justice done to him and his friends, which implies its
being done indirecdy to me also. If the Government wish to
erect a monument themselves they might have done so and yet
have allowed the town to carry out its intentions. I call it most
autocratic and calculated only to annoy. La raison du plus fort
est toujours la meilleure and it is quite curious to see how all W.
does meets with approval in England ; a glance at the Times
shows this, and it is not surprising that he should therefore think
himself infallible and his conduct towards his father and mother
without fault; he does not see how he abuses the power so
prematurely put into his hands.

The Empress's dissatisfaction with the way in which
she had been relegated to the background is further evi-
418

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

denced in her letter to Queen Victoria of December 13, 1890
1890:

Many thanks too for the paper about Greece, which I return,
having read it with much interest. You say that for the first time
[ have written to you on a political matter since 1888. It does
indeed seem strange to me that now I am 50 I am completely
cast off from the official world — not a single official person ever
comes near me and what used to be mem tdgliches Brod has quite
ceased. How I used to work for Fritz and how he used to tell
me everything ! Now I might be buried alive, for, of course, no
one comes near me. As matters are, it is far better so, as one
would not like to be responsible for even the smallest unfortunate
result. All the more, I can look about and study and pick up
information on different subjects, and my former friends not in
official positions are far more outspoken now than they used to
be. I do not run after the official world — on the contrary I avoid
them ; I am too proud to ask any questions — if I am not told
things or asked my opinion.

Influence on the course of events I have not the smallest, or
faintest, but as a member of the thinking public I do not stand
alone and have many who care to exchange opinions with me. At
home I used to follow with such interest all in which dear Papa
and you were concerned. There was a time when the Emperor
William and the Empress Augusta used to talk over everything
with us. Now that my experience is perhaps worth something,
there is a dead silence and one's existence is forgotten.

I have not the faintest ambition to play un rSle in the
present regime, indeed I should scorn to do so after all that has
happened, but it is impossible to lose one's interest in the affairs
of this country, and in the course of peace and progress in the rest
of the world. When I go to Italy or to Greece, it is a pleasure
to talk with King Umberto and with Willy of Greece. I do not
speak of home, as of course what goes on there I watch with the
same affectionate interest as since I was a child.

For the first time in two years the Empress now
expressed her point of view on a question of foreign
policy. Apart from Germany, England and Russia, the
two countries in which she had been most interested

419

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1890 during the preceding lustrum had been Bulgaria and
Greece. In Bulgaria after the abdication of her protege,
Prince Alexander, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha had
ascended the throne, and in spite of plots and intrigues
was gradually consolidating his position.

In Greece the Empress Frederick's interest had been
quickened by the marriage of her daughter Sophie to the
Duke of Sparta. The province of Macedonia, still under
Turkish rule, was seething with unrest, and both Bulgaria
and Greece cast covetous eyes on the land of Macedon.
To her letter of December 13, 1890, the Empress added
the comments :

With regard to Greece, I should like to add one word. The
most dangerous and ticklish question for peace is in the East and
the one that is always turning up again is the Macedonian question.
Both Bulgaria and Greece will never resign a claim to a portion
of this country, and never be friends until this is once settled and
arranged. Once Sandro had made a most excellent plan of how
both could be contented in the event of this province being lost to
Turkey. I often wonder whether England, Austria, Germany and
Italy could not try to arrange the Macedonian difficulty peaceably
for these smaller powers and thus do away with a dangerous apple
of discord which may set the East at odds at any moment, and give
the Russians the much-desired opportunity for interfering.

I saw a friend of mine the other day who is on the Committee
for the Anatolian Railways at Constantinople, and he told me he
thought the Bulgarians the most promising of all the Balkan
nationalities and thought the State was capable of greatly develop-
ing and having a very good future before it — it had made great
strides and it owed everything to Sandro.

The attitude of her son still caused the Empress bitter
heartburnings, especially when his arrogant conduct was
extended to his sister Sophie, the Duchess of Sparta, who
had been on a visit to Berlin to discuss her conversion to
the Greek Church — a project that the Emperor strongly
420

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

opposed, going so far as to say she would never be 1890
allowed to visit Germany again. On December 27, 1890,
the Empress wrote :

Yesterday evening a messenger arrived, who leaves again today
at two, and brought me your dear letter, for which many affectionate
thanks. I thought it was impossible that we should not think alike
on this subject. I hope too that it will blow over when W. has
been made to see that he cannot carry out threats of the kind if
they are ever so solemnly made (as these were) without conse-
quences which must destroy the peace of the family for ever and
show him in the light of a tyrant and bully, which I think, in spite
of his love of showing his power and authority, he would not like.
That such heartlessness and Rucksichtsloslgkeit have left a deep
impression on me you cannot wonder, as it has again revealed to
me the spirit in which I have been treated these three years, when I
was striving to dwell as little as possible on his conduct, hoping that
it would improve. Peace is the only thing I hope for. Gratitude,
affection, confidence, sympathy, I shall never get from that quarter.
They do not understand me — they did not understand their dear
father. They do not want me — they are full of suspicion against
me, though they might know that I interfere in nothing and am far
too proud to do so. These sentiments burst out on the smallest
provocation, and as it is impossible for me to know and guess
who it is who perpetually is trying to repeat gossip to W. and
tell him things to irritate him against me, though I know it is the
interest of many, I shall always be exposed to this sort of thing.
But I feel his rudeness and undutiful conduct to me far less than
I do his rudeness to his sister, who has gone away most deeply
disgusted and hurt. He has no heart and Dona has no tact, and
they are both so convinced of their own perfection that they will
ran with their heads against a wall some day in all naivete.

The best course now and the one I shall certainly adopt is to
drop the matter altogether. What the King of Greece will do or
write, of course, I do not know.

In the preceding month a fourth son had been born
to William II., which led the Empress Frederick to com-
ment:

421

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

I also think a daughter would have been an advantage and
I asked W. whether he would not have liked a daughter. He
answered " Girls were useless creatures, he did not want one and
far preferred to be without ". For him I daresay boys (Recruits)
to be ordered about are far more to his taste — but some day to pro-
vide them all with means and with homes will be no easy task. . . .

The year 1891 opened for the Empress Frederick
without any indication that life was likely to be smoother
for her. She had now passed her fiftieth year, and, as
many observers noted, was growing more and more like
her mother, the septuagenarian Queen Victoria. On
February 22, 1891, the Empress wrote to her mother :

I get told here very often Comme vous ressemble£ & ^a Rzw>&
d'Angleterre and I always answer Cela nest pas flatteur pour ma
rnere^ je voudrau ha. ressembler, — ce qui la rappelk c'est mon deuil,
qui est Mas h meme — quelle pone dspids 2$ ans.

You say that I have not inherited from you the love of look-
ing about at things, but I have a special reason. First of all you
always live amongst beautiful things, therefore you do not feel the
want so much d& vous meulhr la the, as I do, who do not live in
so interesting a milieu. Then you never had the time or oppor-
tunity to make art a special study, and lastly you can get every-
thing arranged for you, whereas I must direct the arrangements of
my house and myself, and choose and collect every single thing,
and cannot leave it to other people. There are but few at Berlin
who quite share and understand my taste, while in London and
at Paris there are hundreds, and a great many in Italy. In Germany
there are very few real amateurs and collectors, and this taste is
nearly confined to the Artists and Professors. But the interest has
greatly developed in Germany during the last twenty years^ and the
Exhibitions do a great deal of good.

The Empress's life of quiet routine at Cronberg was,
however, now interrupted by one last active participation
in an affair of diplomatic importance. It was at the re-
quest of her son, the German Emperor, that in the early
part of 1891 the Empress paid a semi-official visit to
422

CAPRIVI'S CHANCELLORSHIP

Paris. The Emperor was at this time desirous of testing 1891
the real feeling of the Parisian populace towards Ger-
many, and thought that the best means would be a visit
by a near relative. The Empress Frederick had paid
several visits incognito to Paris since the conclusion of
the Franco-German War, and on each occasion had been
well received ; there was therefore some reason for the
assumption that she would be the most likely member of
the German imperial family to sow the seed of a rap-
prochement between the Empire and the neighbouring
Republic.

Accordingly, on February 19, 1891, the Empress,
accompanied by her daughter Princess Margaret and a
considerable suite, arrived in Paris. That day an official
communique was issued to point out that the Empress was
visiting Paris to thank those artists who had promised
to exhibit pictures at the forthcoming art exhibition in
Berlin, of which she was patron. The first three or four
days in Paris passed off well. The Empress visited a large
number of studios and picture galleries as well as one or
two of the curiosity shops for which Paris is famous.

The German press, however, now began to hint that
the visit was a move towards a reconciliation between the
two countries — a hint that aroused the Boulangist party
and caused somewhat inflammatory speeches to be de-
livered in Paris. This spark was fanned into flame when
a day or two later it became known that the Empress
had visited the Palace at Saint Cloud (which had been
destroyed by the Germans in 1870) as well as Versailles
(where her husband had been stationed) and the neigh-
bouring battlefields. Memories of L* Annie Terrible now
surged back, and when it became known that a laurel
wreath placed at the foot of the monument to Henri

423

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1891 Regnault, the celebrated French painter, who had been
killed in the last desperate sortie from Paris, had been
removed on the occasion of the visit of the Empress to
the Ministry of Fine Arts, all attempts at politeness and
courtesy were abandoned. Passions now blazed up to
fever point The French press thundered against these
"Insultes aux Franfais ", and the Empress, avoiding the
tempest, left hurriedly for London.

But the storm did not abate with her departure. The
French artists now withdrew their promises to exhibit at
Berlin, and the Berlin press retaliated with uncontrolled
abuse of their Gallic neighbours.

This was the last intervention of the Empress Fred-
erick in public affairs, and for months the consequences
of it caused her the deepest distress and mortifica-
tion. On March 29, while still at Sandringham staying
with her brother, the Prince of Wales, she wrote to her
mother :

I sdll continue to be much tormented about all the reports
circulated at Berlin purporting to come from Paris and to be
written by people of the Diplomatic Corps and notables from
Paris — such lies. It seems at first they feared in Berlin that Count
Miinster (the German Ambassador in Paris) had not quite under-
stood the situation, but they are now satisfied on this score and
all the blame is laid on my entourage. Really it is too bad.

I had insisted on going to see the French artists in spite of the
warning and entreaties of " the people whose business it was to
keep up the bonne entente between France and Germany ". This
is a wilful distortion of facts. Count Miinster told me to go
to Bouguerau and to Detaille, which I did. Emile Wauters,
Madrazo and Munkaczy are not Frenchmen, but a Belgian, who
wears the German Pour le Merite, a Spaniard and an Austrian.
Messrs. Lefebvre and Galland are Frenchmen — the latter I have
known for years and have often visited, though Munster has never
heard his name. . . .
424

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

Other crimes are that I went into shops and bought nothing. 1891
This is not true ; I went into two jewellers' shops — people who
had worked for me and whose bills had just been paid. I am
supposed to have gone to all sorts of Jewish collectors. I went to
see the great Spitzer collection, and he certainly was a Jew when
he was alive. ... It has annoyed me horribly. ... I think at
50 and after having seen so much of the world I might be credited
with enough tact not to make a fool of myself as they represent
me to have done. . . .

A few days later, on April 3, she wrote from Bucking-
ham Palace :

. . . Hatzfeldt is also much annoyed about the nonsense they
believe at Berlin about my visit (to Paris) and that my entourage
are blamed for the impression my visit is supposed to have made,
which in reality it did not, but only was described by the bad
press as having done so. I hope we shall hear no more about it.
But I did not cut the Russian Ambassador, nor would I have
dreamt of doing such a thing. . . .

Gradually the storm died down, and the Empress
resumed her interest in matters of artistic interest. Two
such examples of her devotion to art may be mentioned.
In her letter to Queen Victoria of April 2, 1891, after a
visit to the National Gallery in London, she wrote to her
mother :

... I went today to see the National Gallery and admired
all its glories again. It is the best chosen, the best lit and arranged
collection of fine pictures in the world, and that is saying a great
deal. Of course the gallery is not a large one, but I think one
enjoys it all the more, whereas the Louvre is quite overwhelming.

This afternoon I went to Mr. Alma Tadema's studio. His
whole house is a work of art — imagined, planned, and arranged
by him — and the scene from which his lovely pictures are taken. . . .

Four months later the Empress, who had now re-
turned to Germany, wrote to her mother a letter in which
is given her opinion of the " Marseillaise ".

425

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1891 T am very sorry [she wrote on August 26, 1891, with reference
to the visit of the French fleet to Portsmouth, when the officers
dined with Queen Victoria at Osborne] that the horrid Marseillaise
should now be the French Anthem, associated as it is with the
horrors of the Revolution and used by the Socialists as the symbol
of violence and all their mad Labour principles. A respectable
Government, such as a peace- and order-loving Republic ought to
be, does not choose a melody to which any such stain is attached as
" Aux armes citoyens, Forme% vos BataiUojis, Marckons, Marchons,
quun sang impur^ etc. (which meant the blood of kings, aristocrats
and priests and now means that of capitalists, bourgeois and Jews).
Tremble^, tyrans et vous perfides, L*opprobre de tons les partis;
Tremble^, vos projets parricides Vont enfin recevoir lew prix. Tout
est soldat pour vous combattre" etc., etc.

I must say I felt sorry that you should have to get up to such
strains as that, though you had no other way of doing the French
honour and most people forget the words of that savage song and
the occasions on which it was used, and what wretches sang it. . , .

The Empress's relations with Bismarck after the
Chancellor's fall now began to assume a mellowness and
sympathy which had never been known during his term
of office. A slight indication of these changed relations
may be gathered from a reported conversation between
Busch and Bismarck about this period.

I took the liberty [Busch records] to ask further what sort
of woman the Crown Princess was, and whether she had much
influence over her husband. " I think not", the Count said ; "and
as to her intelligence, she is a clever woman ; clever in a womanly
way. She is not able to disguise her feelings, or at least not always.
I have cost her many tears, and she could not conceal how angry
she was with me after the annexations (that is to say of Schleswig
and Hanover). She could hardly bear the sight of me, but that
feeling has now somewhat subsided. She once asked me to bring
her a glass of water, and as I handed it to her she said to a lady-in-
waiting who sat near and whose name I forget, * He has cost me as
many tears as there is water in this glass '. But that is all over now.*'
426

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

This incident about the glass of water evidently much 1891
impressed Bismarck, for he told it to Busch again some
months later, when he said of the Crown Princess, " She
is in general a very clever person, and really agreeable in
her way, but she should not interfere in politics ".

The Empress for her part watched with interest Bis-
marck's activities, and on January 6, 1891, she wrote to
Queen Victoria :

... I have just seen some people who have been staying with
Prince Bismarck, and they say he never was so well and strong
and active, and is very cheerful and in good spirits, but that his
relations with his son Herbert are not nearly so confidential,
affectionate or intimate as they were, and a certain coldness has set
in. Bismarck is working hard at his Memoirs, I have no doubt
they will be strange and piquant. . . .

In the remaining nine years of the Empress's life the
Empress never interfered in political matters, and her
letters for this period are mainly full of domestic or family
details. She did not, however, lose her interest in her
eldest son's actions and speeches, and it was with a keenly
critical eye that she read his orations in the columns of
the German press. Whilst refraining from any public
comment upon his oratorical efforts, tactful or otherwise,
she was, in correspondence with her mother, frank in
criticism of her son's many official utterances. One such
speech he delivered at Erfurt in September 1891 on
the eve of the meeting of the Socialist congress at that
town.

The speech at Erfurt [she wrote] was another of those un-
fortunate imprudences of William — these are daily specimens.
Caprivi cannot prevent them. William neither understands or
values advice, he neither asks nor takes it, and as he is in many
ways very green for his age, constant blunders and kfoues are the

427

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1891 result. Ick dulde kemen neben mir. Jeder der gegen mich 1st, werde
ich lersckmettern.1

He is so vain, and all the flattery has made him so conceited
that he delights in making speeches on all occasions, and they
are usually very malapropos and have to be corrected and arranged
afterwards so that they should not make too startling an impression.
One is inclined to smile if it were not so serious and so dangerous.
Fritz was so prudent and careful and wrote out his speeches before
and changed them over and over again. Emperor "William L was
not very happy in his speeches but they were rare. His letters
as you know were funnily blunt and the tournure de phrase not
very happy, so that they often offended people very much, which
he did not at all intend, as he was so very civil and courteous and
meant to be kind although a military despot, and he was such a
gentleman and grand seigneur. His great age and prestige made
people take differently what, coming from a young man, who has
not done anything particular in the world to boast of, sounds
differently. His way of speaking of Napoleon, though he was cer-
tainly wfleau, I thought most unbecoming, for he was a great
historical personage and soldier and a vanquished foe, and after
1870-71 it does not seem necessary to say another word; but as
you will perceive by this little newspaper cutting this speechify-
ing is encouraged by a certain silly party who find it quite to their
taste, though it offends that of all more cultivated people.

The Emperor William, however, did not confine his
remarkable statements to the spoken word, and on the
occasion of his visit to Munich in November gave evi-
dence of his Caesarian ambitions when he wrote in the
book at the Town Hall the classical tag :

Suprema Lex Regis Voluntas.2

All parties without exception were offended by the
Emperor's phrase, and the opinion of the Empress co-

1 I suffer no one near me. Everyone who is against me I will
crush.

2 Literally : The will of the king is the highest law.
428

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

incided with the opinion of the majority of Germans 1891
when she wrote to her mother on November 15, 1891 :

... I was distressed at what W. wrote in the book at this
Town Hall at Munich :

Suprema Lex
Regis Voluntas.

I think he can hardly understand what a levue he is making when
he writes such a thing. A Czar, an infallible Pope — the Bourbons
— and our poor Charles I. — might have written such a sentence,
but a constitutional Monarch in the i9th century!!! So young a
man — the son of his father — and your grandson — not to speak
of a child of mine — should neither have nor express such a maxim.
... I can say nothing, give no advice. I am usually completely
ignored.1

Another provocative speech was made by the Emperor
William six weeks later, when addressing some new re-
cruits for the German army. At this period a certain
section in the German political world was working hard
for a rapprochement between the Emperor and Prince
Bismarck, and it was to this speech and to these en-

1 For an interesting explanation of this incident see Sir Rennell
Rodd's Social and Diplomatic Memories, pp. 267-268, where he re-
lates that " there were two registers at Munich in which eminent
visitors were invited to inscribe their names. The Emperor had
already done so in the album presented to him. It was then dis-
covered that a mistake had been made and that so august an auto-
graph should have been recorded in the Golden Book. The Regent
(of Bavaria), however, expressed the opinion that his imperial guest
must not be further importuned, and informing him that he had
done so, begged that his decision should be respected. Neverthe-
less, in spite of the Regent's wishes, the book reserved for more
important autographs was submitted, and then it was that the
Emperor, intending to signify that the Regent's will must be his
law, wrote in it instead of his name the much-discussed sentence.
The explanation appears plausible, but it does not enhance the
Emperor's reputation for discretion.*'

429

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1891 deavours that the Empress alluded in her letter to Queen
Victoria of December 5, 1891 :

... I don't think the state of things very satisfactory here.
W. has, alas, made a terrible new speech to the recruits which is
very freely criticised, and the party that wish a reconciliation with
Prince Bismarck are working very hard. I was even asked whether
I would not try to use influence to bring this about, but as you
may imagine I answered that I had no influence whatever, and
would never allude to the subject.

There is great poverty, and the working classes have lost a good
deal of money and very little business is done. There is just a
quiet confidence in Caprivi's honesty and steadiness and modera-
tion, but Miguel has done his best to undermine him. I do not
think he will succeed. The principal cause of uneasiness and in-
security as to foreign affairs is the fear that Mr. Gladstone will
have " a turn " again before long and that the Russians and French
will take the opportunity of making war, as it is assumed that
England would not join the Triple Alliance and allow Russia to
do what she pleased — both in the East and in Europe — and France
what she liked in Egypt.

W. is not at all popular. Every question has been taken up
and then dropped again, and a deal of irritation caused and nothing
of consequence done or reformed. The public utterances are much
criticised and the expense of the Army increases tremendously.
Still all this would smooth and calm down and settle itself, if
only wiser and steadier and more experienced men were listened
to. ...

Further endeavours were now made to effect a recon-
ciliation between the Emperor and Bismarck, and on
December 12, 1891, the Empress Frederick wrote to
Queen Victoria :

. . . Politics are in a queer state. Caprivi has done excellently
well and has defended his commercial treaties valiantly ; but the
agitation on the pari of the Conservatives and Bismarckites to
bring Prince B. back is very strong. They want his influence to
be all powerful again, even if he does not take office. First they
want to obtain a complete reconciliation with W. I have even
430

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

been spoken to and asked whether I would not try to influence "W. 1891
in that direction. You may imagine how I laughed. The very
people who for years laboured and intrigued to destroy my
influence and that of Fritz now would wish me to help to patch
things up with Prince B. I told them plainly that I had not the
faintest influence over the son whom their wickedness had turned
against his parents, nor his affairs — they have what they wanted,
to all intents and purposes I am dead and gone. I shall never seek
to have any influence. My opinion can always be had for the
asking — unasked I shall never give it. I should consider it very
dangerous for the country and the monarchy to let Prince B. have
anything more to say. That later on, W. should be on a footing
of courtesy and civility with him and that he should be received
at Berlin I should consider both dignified and proper and good
policy, but nothing more.

It may interest you to know that it is Kessel who is the person
used to try and influence W. towards a reconciliation, and sly as he
is, he is hard at work to effectuate this.

You may be sure I shall not open my mouth. May they all
reap the harvest of their bad deeds. If I had a shadow of influence
I should implore W. to make no speeches in public, for they are
too terrible, and not to write into books and under photos any
more — it makes one's hair stand on end. Here in Berlin people
are becoming accustomed to these very strange utterances and think
it a peculiar style to which it is well not to attach too great import-
ance— it is put down to ignorance and childish impetuosity, and
some of the best newspapers mildly criticise, remonstrate and
advise. I send you here a specimen which is very good. I fear,
however, it does not make the slightest effect. Oh, how different
all might be if that vile party, who brought on 1848 and drove
F. W. IV. off his head, terrorised my father-in-law and formed
the bodyguard of Bismarckism — broke Fritz's heart and destroyed
all the work of our lives — took entire possession of our son,
knocked me and all our friends down — did not exist. Bismarck,
their stronghold, is gone, but they remain, and until the baneful
work they have been at for so many years is stopped, of course,
there never can be harmony or understanding between "W. and me,
nor can he have any knowledge of his father's opinion, or any
confidence in his mother — though there may be peace and a more
comfortable feeling of outward intercourse. Herbert Bismarck said

431

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1891 three months before he left, to a friend of his whom he knew :
" Die, Kluft *wischen den Kaiser und seine Mutter muss eine voll-
stdndige werden., die nicht wieder %u beseitigen 1st." l

I must wait quietly — perhaps I shall die before justice and
truth have their day, but die people who are around him are not
my friends, and have no wish that he should return to me. My
keeping so completely aloof from everything ought to prove to
them how needless it is for them to take such pains to keep me
away* For me patience is the best, but it is patience without
hope. . . .

The speeches of the Emperor William did not gain in

1892 prudence as the months went by. In February 1892, on
the occasion of a parliamentary dinner, he gave further
proof of his animosity to those whom he considered to
be his enemies, and on February 16 the Empress wrote
from Berlin to Queen Victoria :

The Government here and W. are playing a most dangerous
game — it seems to me from sheer ignorance of the importance of
die question they have dealt with so lightly. I am afraid "W. makes
the most imprudent speeches at these parliamentary dinners (after
dinner). Here am I condemned to sit and look on in silence
without being able to say one word in warning and knowing that
the hideous mistakes made may lead to terrible consequences.
After having for more than thirty years been so nearly connected
with all that was going on, and collected knowledge and experience
of people and things, I now watch as from a grave — more than
useless and forgotten — the reckless course pursued by my own son.
The other members of the family do not seem to see or to care —
no one sensible has any influence — no one about him warns or
gives advice. The worst of it is that we shall perhaps all have to
pay for his ignorance and imprudence. Of course, far away in
England you see and hear nothing of all this.

Dona's people are exceedingly active and make her take part
in all sorts of charities and undertakings of many kinds, but only
from an orthodox Low Church and Conservative point of view.

1 The gulf between the Emperor and his mother is bound to
become complete, and can never be bridged over.

432

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

We never talk on these subjects, indeed between the Schloss and 1892
me there is no intercourse whatever. We are on a friendly footing
whenever we meet, which is very rare. It needs an unusual amount
of philosophy to accept a situation of so much bitterness and dis-
appointment without murmuring. I should never come here any
more if it were not my duty, and if there were not things which I
cannot and must not and will not abandon and where some good
still can be done. It is beloved Fritz's homeland we still have friends
I stick to, but with the whole present regime I have absolutely
nothing to do.

A week later the Emperor William made another
speech, this time at Brandenburg, in which he severely
censured the opponents of his political policy, styling
them " grumblers ". The speech made a sensation not
only in Germany but also in England, where The Times
commented unfavourably upon it in a strong leading
article. The reproduction of this article in several Berlin
newspapers led to their confiscation by the German
Government, and it became more and more evident that
the Emperor, whilst making the most ill-advised state-
ments himself, was determined to allow no one in Ger-
many to criticise the Imperial utterances.

Meanwhile, the distress in Berlin, Hanover and
Dantzig, due to trade depression, brought in its train
much rioting and disturbance, and it was to these
subjects that the Empress alluded in her letter to Queen
Victoria of February 27, 1892 :

I send you some really good extracts from Papers of my way
of thinking about those horrid riots of the day before yesterday
and yesterday. It seems all quiet again now, I am happy to say.
These things will happen now and then, but are more dangerous
in Germany than anywhere. I also send an extract about my poor
W.'s ill-inspired Speech.

I really feel like an old hen that has hatched a duckling instead

of a chicken and sees it swimming away. Only ducks know how

2F 433

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1892 to swim and the poor hen's anxiety is needless, whereas here it
seems to me that he " rushes in where Angels fear to tread ". I
wish I could put a padlock on his mouth for all occasions where
speeches are made in public. It is no use to say anything — the
Bismarck education and the school of the Emperor William's
entourage have made him what he is, and their teaching brings on
these results — his dear father and I are in no way responsible for
his extraordinary ideas. We were for constitutional liberty, for
quiet steady progress — for an unobtrusive but unobstructed evolu-
tion— for individualism and the development of culture, not for
Imperialism, Caesarism, State Socialism, etc. We were Whigs of
the old school, but the modern most unphilosophical sort of Tory
Democrat is an abomination to me — a cajoling of errors and
coquetting with mistaken ideas only for the sake of gaining more
power, whereas I am for liberty of opinion and individual inde-
pendence— of which poor Germany has had so little. Les ex-
trtmes se touckent where there is absolutism, and where the State
is everything there is sure to be Socialism. I wish to see the public
at large working for the relief of the poor and the unemployed ;
charity might be still more liberal in Germany, more general and
better organised. But charity is crippled, and self-help and organisa-
tion cannot be learnt when the State alone insists on doing every-
thing and others sit and look on.

Two days later, in the course of a letter to her mother
expressing her sympathy at the death of Prince Albert
Victor, Duke of Clarence, the eldest son of the Prince of
Wales, the Empress again made reference to the male-
volent influences of the clique into which her son the
Emperor William had fallen.

I am sorely tried too; though I have, thank God, not lost
my eldest son, he is a source of constant anxiety to me. The
pernicious influence of the Bismarcks of certain military circles
and Junkers have so filled his head with ideas which I consider
most false and dangerous and which he takes up with the convic-
tion and ncxvete of ignorance and inexperience — there is no one
there to advise or counteract the baneful turn given to his opinions.
What will it come to ? He was snatched out of our hands — all

434

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

our wise friends were put to silence. Alas, my poor parents-in-law 1892
rather lent themselves to this system of playing him off against
us. You remember how I used to complain of the poor Empress
Augusta flattering him, etc. She did all for the best, I am sure,
but she did him a deal of harm. I assure you I tremble for him —
with all his rashness and obstinacy, etc., he is a big baby. Henry
and Bernhard understand politics no better than he does. Some
of his Aides-de-Camp were beside themselves with enthusiasm
about this speech, which quite brought the perspiration to my
forehead when I read it. The speech was, alas, no ebullition of the
moment — he had written it all down before and took it with him and
made Oberprasident von Achenbach prompt him. I should have
refused and told him that such a speech was impossible. After-
wards the Ministers tried to weed out all the expressions which were
a great deal stronger still, therefore the Staatsan%eiger, in which it was
printed in its present form, appeared three hours later than usual.

Tonight "W. presides at a banquet of students of the Borussian
Corps at the Hotel Kaiserhof — a thing which in my opinion is not
the right thing for a Sovereign to do — still I trust he will be more
prudent in his utterances. It is too despairing to see people rushing
headlong into mistakes and on quite a wrong track and not to be
able to stop them. All those who are blind enough to hate Con-
stitutional liberty admire and applaud him and all the orthodox set.
Why is it they do not see that they are playing the game of Socialism
as Prince Bismarck was ? I so seldom see Sir E. Malet that I do
not know what he thinks of all this, and he is so prudent a man
that he would not say to me what he thought*

It was, of course, inevitable that some of the public
criticisms levelled against the speeches of the Emperor
should come to his ears, and the effect of these comments
upon him is indicated in the Empress's letter to her
mother, dated March 21, 1892 :

I think that he was very furious at some of the criticisms on his
speech. He will not admit that the speech was a mistake in any
way and thinks the criticisms all pure spite and wickedness, but
some that were shown him have annoyed him, which everybody
is thankful for, as heretofore they have made no impression what-
ever— and it is hoped this may stagger him a little and make him

435

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1892 a little more prudent and careful. I myself do not think so — he
is so imbued with false ideas that it would want a constant and
daily and powerful influence to open his eyes, explain things in
their true light. He does not understand what a Constitution is.
He does not know a single member of the Liberal party — he never
reads one of the really good sensible newspapers. If he only had
the same political instinct that dear Louis had, and that I believe
and hope Ernie will have. None of my children care for politics,
or understand them, Le.t for the development of a wise and en-
lightened progress. I think that it was wished that William should
be away on the i8th March, which was a very good thing, as it was
not certain whether we should not have some rows in the streets
again. The Education Bill has been thrown out and Ct. Zedlitz
has resigned. Everyone is very glad and I think there will be a
universal sense of relief. Caprivi has tendered his resignation, but
I do not suppose it will be accepted. I should be sorry for many
reasons if he went. He is certainly not a statesman, but he is so
honest and well-meaning and conscientious and a safe man. . . .

As the year 1892 progressed, it became evident that
tremendous efforts were being made to secure a recon-
ciliation between the Emperor William and Prince Bis-
marck* The Empress regarded any such reconciliation
with alarm, and her reasons are clearly given in her letter
to Queen Victoria of June 4, 1892 :

I suppose you have heard of all the efforts that are being made
to bring about a reconciliation between Bismarck and "W. I con-
sider the thing dangerous in many ways. It would take too long to
explain it all, but W. will soon be quite in the hands of the Ost-
Preussische clique and that of the industrials, such as Stumm.

The latter was employed in sounding the terrain to see whether
Bismarck would go and see W. on his way to Kiel to meet the
Emperor of Russia, and whether, therefore, W/s train should
stop at Friedrichsruh. If it were only a mere act of courtesy and
civility it would not matter, but the industrials want to have an
influence on politics, especially in the sense of protectionism.
I fear, if they succeed, that Caprivi would leave directly, which
would be a very great pity for many reasons. The Minister of the
436

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

Interior, Herfurt, is a useful man, the only clever head in the 1892
Ministry — thus Eulenburg and the Conservatives are trying hard
to get rid of him. There is no stability anywhere. . . .

In the following months it became evident that there
was little hope of any reconciliation between Prince Bis-
marck and the German Emperor, and the attitude of the
ex-Chancellor to his former master now began to peep
forth in the severe strictures which he passed upon the
Emperor's policy at home and abroad. It was very evi-
dent that the breach between the two men, instead of
narrowing, was becoming wider and wider.

During the summer months of 1892 there occurred in
England a change of ministry. The general elections of
June and July had resulted in the return of Mr. Gladstone
to power for the fourth time. The election had been
fought primarily upon the issue of Home Rule for Ireland,
a legislative and constitutional issue upon which Lord
Rosebery, who was now appointed Foreign Secretary in
Mr. Gladstone's ministry, was not in the fullest agree-
ment with his leader. It was to these events that the
Empress Frederick alluded in her letter to Queen Victoria
of August 1 6, 1892:

... I was so much relieved to hear that Lord Rosebery had
accepted the post of Foreign Secretary, as, though his non-accept-
ance would have been a blow and a spoke in the wheel to the
Gladstonians, yet, even in a short while, without Lord Rosebery
at the Foreign Office irreparable harm might have been done and
mischief wrought beyond undoing. I felt very unhappy and uneasy
for you in the first place and then for our dear country. To think
that the greatest and most glorious Empire in the world, whose
affairs were being managed (on the whole) as well and successfully
and carefully as could be desired, should by a combination of cir-
cumstances be plunged into indecision and uncertainty — a troubled
sea of fantastic and unreasonable experiments — makes me frantic.

437

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1892 I was most alarmed about Egypt. The folly of abandoning an
undertaking on which so much blood and treasure, thought and
labour have been spent, seems to me too grievous and, alas, danger-
ous in every way. You know I am not chauvinistic, and " prestige "
is often a very empty word, but in this case " prestige " is a power
and a reality — to be used for good. Why should we make room
for the French, knowing that it would bring a train of calamities
after it ? If we leave Egypt, we shall never have influence there
again — the next Army of occupation will be a French one.

"We here in Germany know how the Russians are pushing for-
ward towards the Indian frontier and moving up their forces and
their material. Those who wish England well think that4o or 50,000
men more are needed than we have now in India, and do not con-
sider the number high. It is a small sacrifice compared with that we
should have to make, if to reconquer part of the Indian Empire were
necessary. It behoves us to be on the watch and not to part with
anything which can strengthen ourarm — whereas any weakness will
only tempt our enemies to attack us. This is my firm conviction.

When I heard that Lord Rosebery was gone to France and was
not going to accept, I feared that he might have seen members of
the French Government and have heard from them of promises
made to France by Mr, Gladstone about Egypt The speech of
Sir C. Dilke made me fear this. But on the other hand, if Mr.
Gladstone is so utterly bent on taking office cofite gue cofoe, per-
haps he will give way to Lord Rosebery and also make other
concessions ? You have been through such difficult times often
and everyone admires the way in which you take such things, and
of this I always feel so proud.

God forbid that the wretched Home Rule Bill be passed. Some
say Mr. G. will try to abolish the House of Lords if they throw it
out, but this is easier said than done. Others maintain he will
make a batch of new Peers and so get the support he wants. Then
again one hears he wants to abolish the " Commander-in-Chief "
just as the Lord High Admiral was once abolished. But this is
more political gossip and surmise than anything else. One thing
I am certain of, the G.O.M., in spite of all his vagaries and vanity
and fanaticism and power of thoroughly convincing himself that
the course he means to adopt is the right one, is yet sincerely
loyal to the Crown. I have often observed that, and it would be
unjust not to admit it, or give him credit for the sincerity of

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

those sentiments, while one is obliged to think him dangerous as a 1892
politician and cannot possibly agree with the programme he has
so often announced and that many of his party will try and force
him to keep to, which I cannot help thinking will soon by its utter
impracticability end in a breakdown.

Perhaps I ought not to speak so openly, now he is once in
office and everyone must try to make the best of it and prevent
mischief as much as possible. . . . Meanwhile the Conservatives
will be very glad to have a rest. . . .

Interest in Germany was now concentrated upon the
army bills that were introduced by the Chancellor,
General von Caprivi, in November 1892. These bills
were designed to effect great increases in the strength of
the army, and owing to the depressed state of trade in
Germany were vigorously opposed in the Reichstag. On
January 7, 1893, die Empress wrote to Queen Victoria : 1893

I am afraid the situation here is not at all satisfactory. The
Generals and military authorities are perfectly convinced that the
army reform is absolutely necessary for our safety. I quite believe
what they say and wish with all my heart they could obtain what
they want. Alas, the government have gone to work in the most
awkward way. Instead of slowly trying to prepare public opinion
(especially convincing the Deputies) they came upon the nation
with this immense demand for money at a time when all the sad
consequences of the Bismarck regime are most felt. The depression
of trade and the unsatisfactory state of agriculture, the ever in-
creasing, now almost crushing burden of taxation, alas! W.'s great
unpopularity and the general discontent make this Bill so distasteful
to the people that I fear there is no chance of its being passed. A
dissolution would make things worse and CaprivTs resignation
would be a misfortune. This is all very sad, and I often feel very
anxious. In these twenty-one years the Monarchical principle has
suffered very much — so many blunders have been made — un-
fortunate speeches — so many people have been hurt and offended,
etc. . . . that there is a very uncomfortable feeling abroad. Every
party (the blindest Bismarckites excepted) is anxious to keep
Caprivi, whose honesty and conscientiousness are so thoroughly

439

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1893 appreciated after the long years of the Bismarck regime, but what
is to be done ? Neither "W. nor Caprivi can quite understand or
grasp the situation — they have no political knowledge or experi-
ence, and the former a great amount of prejudices, etc. ... the
result of the entourage he has lived in. I wish with all my heart
one could help him, but his whole education as regards politics
serait d refaire and a totally different set of people ought to have
access and things be explained thoroughly from the right point
of view. All my anger and bitterness (for W. I have more than
just cause) are turned into anxiety and concern and pity, but I am
quite powerless to do even the smallest good and can only hope
against hope that things may right themselves.

The Empress's attention was now attracted to events
in the Balkans. In Roumania the heir-presumptive.
Prince Ferdinand, had, in 1888, become engaged to Mile.
Vacaresco,amaid-of-honour to Queen Elizabeth (Carmen
Sylva). Public disapproval of the match was, however,
so pronounced that the engagement was broken off, and
Queen Elizabeth left the country. Finally, in the June
of 1892, Prince Ferdinand became engaged to Princess
Marie of Edinburgh, and in the following February their
marriage took place at Sigmaringen.

Scarcely had Roumania settled down to its new Prin-
cess than attention was directed to Servia, where the
youthful Prince Alexander, on April 14, suddenly pro-
claimed his majority, dismissed die Regents and their
ministry, and appointed in their stead a radical ministry
amid every sign of popular approval.

At the same time that these events were attracting
attention to the Balkans, the German Emperor was visit-
ing Rome, where he had invited himself to the silver
wedding of the King and Queen of Italy.

Poor King of Italy [the Empress wrote to her mother on
April 1 8] — the visit will quite ruin him — he has to pay all out of
440

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

his own pocket, the Naval and Military Review into the bargain, 1893
and it is to cost two million Lire. I live in dread of the Alliance
being made so irksome that the poor Italians cannot keep it up. I
wish William would see this. They are not at all pleased at Berlin
at his going away now, when the "Militar Vorlage " has to be
fought in the Reichstag. The Quirinal has to be arranged and the
enormous Palace at Naples got ready. It is really not considerate
to overwhelm the Italian Court with such a suite. I am quite
distressed about it.

It is quite true that the Roumanians do not want Elizabeth back,
as they are terrified at her having been the tool of the Russians
and a danger to Roumanian interests through these Vacarescos,
SchefFer, and French people, but if she could once be brought to
see and understand what it all was, there would be no danger
any more and only advantage to everyone if she returned. Poor
Princess Wied knows this all quite well and says she cannot blame
the Roumanians.

This coup d'etat of the Servian boy King seems also to be a
Russian Coup and consequently rather to be regretted, though it
may be good in other ways. The Queen was always a Russian
tool, poor thing, and as King Milan is always in want of money, it
is not impossible he may have become one too from this reason.
It is not agreeable for Ferdinand of Bulgaria. I shall think of him
so much tomorrow on his "Wedding Day.

In the summer of 1893 the Empress paid a visit to her
daughter, the Crown Princess of Greece, at Athens. It
was from Athens that she wrote about this time to Baron
von Reischach a letter which more than any other appears
to embody her opinion of the current political situation
in Germany. The general election of June 1893 had
resulted in a small majority for the Government, which
desired to carry out the policy of strengthening the army in
spite of the opposition of the Socialists. The Empress was
pleased at the Government victory, and the event gave
her the opportunity of summarising the trend of political
thought in Germany during the past decade. Naturally,

441

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1893 her opinion of Bismarck, now mellowed and in better
perspective, owing to the passing of years, comes into
the letter, which ran :

I fully agree with you regarding the elections, and do not incline
to exaggerated pessimism. But it is a difficult matter to argue on
such a theme, and especially in writing. My point of view and
political creed differ widely from yours. All my experience, studies
and observations have contributed to confirm my opinion. On one
point, however, I think we entirely agree — that is, in regard to
the ideal we hold of our native country, in the burning wish to
see it realised, which does not imply external power only, but
internal soundness, intrinsic solidity and power, which means its
inner worth. There are many things which still require to be
shaped into proper and ordered form. Poor Germany has had an
historical development which in some ways has fostered its great
qualities, whereas it has tended to cripple others entirely. It is
necessary to see below the surface, and to understand how judg-
ment, restfulness, and political aptitude are lacking, and how
natural this is, and also to what degree the individual lacks inde-
pendence in his political thoughts, and for this reason is easily
susceptible to doctoring. The wild and poisonous nonsense of
Socialism, which is apt to take such a deceptive and seductive form,
is composed of nothing but hollow phrases and forced deductions,
and would never otherwise have enslaved such strong men. True
and sensible freedom worthy of mankind, which makes human
beings conservative in a good sense, has never been nursed or
taught, nor has it been preached. The great man (Bismarck) who
achieved such wonderful things had no grasp of this. But this
alone could have stemmed the tide of lunacy called Socialism, for
it taught men to think independently, and to recognise where the
true interests and duties of the individual lay. That, however, did
not suit the political machine, which was priding itself on creating
things rapidly which from their nature should have been prepared
slowly and from above, the growth of which would have matured
of their own accord. Pray do not think that I wish to be unjust
towards the Great Man. I do not wish either to underrate his
achievements or to revile or criticise him ; he had colossal power
and represented a potential lever ; he gave what he had to give.
But the fact of his being what he was brought in its train more
442

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

than one disadvantage alongside all the brilliant successes of his 1893
career, which had attained such dizzy heights. I cannot help
thinking that the Emperor Frederick's noble, straight and un-
selfish nature would gradually, by systematic and cautious opposi-
tion and purposeful and well-thought-out counteraction, have
corrected these disadvantages, which he, as a tactful and quiet
observer, had had ample time to recognise. I feel convinced that
he would thus have finished and complemented Bismarck's great
work. He alone might have brought this invaluable gift to his
dearly beloved people. Now that he is lying in his grave, things
will have to go their course and pass through difficult stages.
Wisdom and experience may possibly have to be bought dearly.
But I suppose that gradually things will evolve out of the chaos
and excitement which seem to prevail nowadays. Germany has
too many good brains and true hearts at its disposal, not to be
able to work out its own salvation dispassionately and wisely.
The excitement of victory is past, and its reaction of alarm and
exaggerated pessimism will pass as well, and a more sensible frame
of mind is bound to be developed out of this ferment, but in my
opinion, this phase which we now have to pass through might
have been spared the nation. There have always been great men,
but not always Sovereigns, who had been trained, prepared and
created for their posts like the one whom we shall always mourn.
The nation will have to learn to rely on itself and do without such
men. I feel convinced that it will be equal to its task, and that
it is looking forward to a happy future. Maybe you will not
agree with me on all these points. I do not wish to force my
opinion on anybody, and do not often express it. And I find that
very few people share it. It is the habit of men to consider as
vain and impracticable a philosophic theory intended to keep hold
of the sequence of historical events. I do not share this opinion.
Unless a person has formed a clear idea of cause and effect, and of
the consequences of certain principles, he lives from hand to mouth
and not for the morrow, and in a continual state of vacillation.
Prince Bismarck was a great opportunist, a master in creation of
situations ; his perception was rapid and the means he employed
were clever ; his courage was great, but his example was a wrong
one to copy, and bad for the training of others. I am speaking
without rancour, and bear him no grudge. My husband and myself
did not meet with his approval. He considered us inconvenient

443

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1893 tools, and the way in which his party treated us and tried to render
us innocuous has become a matter of history. I cannot say that
it was a pleasant time, and its effect has not yet passed. I suffered
greatly, but I have gladly endured it all, and am ready to pay the
highest price for it, if it has done any good at all, for I steered
the course which I whole-heartedly considered the right one. The
fact that my son's soul was alienated from me is the wilful and
purposeful work of one party. It thinks it has performed a
patriotic deed ; it has the power, whereas I had none, and I will
most likely go to my grave unknown, alien and misunderstood,
for a lonely woman is not able to achieve anything against many
turbulent men and their blind prejudices. Fate will not have it
otherwise, and I do not impute to the men who trod us under
foot any bad motives. I feel convinced that they thought they
were serving their country and considered the means they made
use of — de bonne guerre I Men are perishable, but ideas live. The
Emperor Frederick's hopes and what he worked for may some day
be realised, but not for a long long time. Maybe they will come
after hard times, but I shall not live to see them! Pray forgive
my long dissertation : I have had time to think it all out in this
beautiful and still night at Tartoi. When my heart is well-nigh
bursting with pain and bitterness, when I think of Berlin, then I
look up to the golden stars and regain my tranquillity and peace,
for sometimes things turn out better than one thinks, and a few
decades count in the lives of nations not more than a few minutes
to us here. I believe firmly in eternal progress and evolution,
whether quick or slow, and whether those men disappear or not
who might have sown the seed for this development and prevented
an arrest of this process.1

Meanwhile, the difficulties occasioned in Roumania by
the long absence of Queen Elizabeth (Carmen Sylva) in
Germany, now seemed to be approaching a solution* In
the October of 1893 a son was born to Prince Ferdinand
and his consort, and the event was the prelude to the
return of the Queen to Roumania during the following

1 Published in Baron von Reischach's Under Three Emperors,
p. 140 seq.

444

CAPRIVPS CHANCELLORSHIP

year. Before the return of the Queen to Bukarest the 1893
Empress Frederick had written to Queen Victoria
(October 17) :

. . . Poor Elizabeth I I had not the heart to telegraph to
her, as I feel the joy cannot be without great bitterness for
her

So many thanks for your dear letter of the I2th. You say in
one part that Elizabeth did not like the peculiar position of Herr
von Roggenbach in her mother's house. Elizabeth was always
devoted to him and owes him an immense debt of gratitude. The
moment the intrigues began, Elizabeth took a dislike to him, to her
mother, the King and all her old friends. The set that surrounded
her heaped the vilest lies and calumnies on the heads of both
H. v. R. and the Princess. They are all to be read in that detestable
book Mishe Royale. Now Elizabeth is shocked and horrified
and sends for H. v. R. and says she cannot understand how she
could misunderstand her best friend. He has behaved, as he always
does, with the greatest tact and unselfishness. Those who say he
is indiscreet make the most outrageous mistake. He is the very
reverse, so retiring, so delicate and so tactful, it is indeed very
difficult to get him to come and see one, or write. How often the
Empress Augusta used to say that, and what confidence she and
Fritz and General v. S. had in him, and those who are alive have
still. How Fritz looked up to him!

I think you forget, dear Mama, that it was Bismarck and his
whole large party who persecuted him. W. sanctioned his house
in the country being broken into and the locks of all his boxes
forced, his writing table broken open, his private papers seized,
copied and shown to the members of the Bundesrath. This
villainous act of abuse of power happened just before I came to
Osborne in 1888. It is a black spot on the present regime and reign
and was in connection with Geffcken's being thrown into prison.
This was worthy of Napoleon the First, or of Richelieu, or the
Medicis in the Middle Ages. It was no indiscretion of Roggenbach's
— it was done in order to make a case against Fritz and against me.
I am not so magnanimous as Roggenbach. I cannot forgive and for-
get all that yet — it was my son who sanctioned and encouraged all
this, and that makes the difference ; if he had been a stranger, one
could have got over it.

445

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

The year 1894 opened with the ostensible recon-
ciliation between Prince Bismarck and the Emperor
William. The Prince was warmly and honourably re-
ceived by the Emperor, and a popular ovation marked
the passage of the aged ex-Chancellor on his way to meet
his sovereign.

The Emperor was now fully determined that Germany
should expand wherever possible, and in his colonial
policy he was now supported by his former Chancellor,
who had changed his opinions on this subject during the
past few years. In the June of 1894 Germany took excep-
tion to certain clauses in an agreement signed in the
previous May between Great Britain and the Congo Free
State, by which a strip of territory was leased to Great
Britain for the eventual track of a Cape to Cairo railway.
This would have interposed a belt of British territory
between the Congo and German East Africa, but under
German pressure the lease was abandoned. The ex-
Empress watched Bismarck's attitude to these questions
with interest, and on June 21, 1894, wrote to Queen
Victoria :

I think the German Government are quite wrong about the
Congo and that they are making themselves odious for no reason.
It is too absurd to suspect England of falseness and treachery —
that is not in our line. I always was strongly against German
Colonies in Africa. They are of no use to Germany — only an
expense and a trouble. They do not understand in Germany how
to manage and govern them, and it only makes the Germans
quarrelsome and pretentious and always on the qui vive ; in short
it seems to me very unnecessary to embark on any such adven-
ture. Fritz always thought so. Prince Bismarck used to be strongly
opposed to these colonial enterprises and then suddenly took them
up. One of his friends, I think it was General v. Schweinitz,
expressed his surprise at this change, and Bismarck answered, " I,
too, think Germany would be better ofFwithout this colonial policy,
446

CAPRIVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

but I must have it as a means of stirring up German indignation 1894
against England whenever I want it, because the Crown Prince
[Fritz] will be too prone to form a friendship with England and
I must be able to keep him in check by ' German patriotism '. I
want England's co-operation often, but I will not have the influence
of British ideas in Germany — the constitutionalism and liberalism
to which the Crown Prince is given. I must also have a means of
bringing England to terms when I want her support, and therefore
I must stimulate German colonial enthusiasm." I do not know
whether I ever told you this — it is a long while ago, but it comes
back to me now. It is so like the cunning old fox — it may be very
clever for his own purposes of reigning supreme and appearing
to a great many excitable, violent and short-sighted Germans as
the greatest patriot of the day, and the one who most wishes to
raise Germany's position, uphold her honour and glory and carry
her name abroad that it should triumph over the seas. Looked
at practically and impartially it is great rubbish. If the Germans
wanted a real, useful, good Colony in a place where a great many
Germans have settled and colonised, the south of Brazil would be
much better, and at one time in Paraguay one might have had a
very favourable opportunity after the war when the population
was so decimated. There are buildings, roads, navigable rivers, etc.,
and one might have done useful work, whereas in the Cameroons
the climate is impossible and the whole thing is altogether unsatis-
factory and a mistake and a failure.

But this is only my private idea. I know you will not betray
me. I have Germany's interest every bit as much at heart as Prince
Bismarck had, but not to drive Germany to acts of folly by exciting
false patriotism. I should like to see her people in the enjoyment
of more civilisation, liberty, culture and prosperity, and freed from
many a yoke which weighs upon them ; I feel convinced that this
is quite compatible with being on the best of terms with England
and not coming into any collision with British interests, and that
true greatness and power He in the development and progress of
the nation. With so huge an Army as Germany is obliged to keep
up at present, an unduly and disproportionately large Navy seems to
me a mistake, both from an economical and political point of view.

William's one idea is to have a Navy which shall be larger
and stronger than the British Navy, but this is really pure madness
and folly and he will see how impossible and needless it is. One

447

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1894 large enough for German requirements and as good as possible
of its kind is all that ought to be aimed at— with prudence and
safety. But he has some fantastic idea of Peter the Great, Frederick
the Great, etc., who did so much by their own initiative, and
forgets how Germany is thirsting for liberty and reform in so
many things, and how his true work cut out for him, left him as
a legacy by his father, is of a very different kind.

To this letter the Empress added a postscript, which
shows that her opinion of Bismarck had not changed
greatly since his demission from office in 1890 :

What I confided to you in my letter this morning, I should
not venture to tell Lord Rosebery. He was and is still, I believe,
very intimate with the Bismarcks, and how could I tell whether B.
might not hear his own words again. I remember that he said them
to Schweinitz, who is a very reserved, cautious and discreet man,
but B. might be furious with him and he would never tell me
anything again. Whenever Prince B. is no more and nothing dis-
agreeable could occur to Schweinitz, it would not matter who
knew it — it would amuse and interest Lord Rosebery then. Prince
Bismarck's dodgy, tricky ways — his sharpness in trying to turn
everything to advantage — for his own power — were very difficult
to cope with. Germany is now saddled with troublesome and
unprofitable Colonies — highly flattering to its amour propre, and
the public in their enthusiasm consider it another leaf in the
crown of laurels which surrounds the brows of their great bene-
factor and patriot, the great Chancellor, but only the wiser few
perceive how doubtful a benefit he has conferred on his country.
I, of course, am not at liberty to express my opinion and should
lay myself out to much misunderstanding and be considered un-
faithful to German interests. The German Government once hav-
ing embarked on this affair, of course, must continue to carry out
what it has begun and would consider it most humiliating to
abandon the policy into which it threw itself headlong with
such rashness. The very sound of the thing is fantastical and
charms William, as all startling, unusual, sensational and new things
do. I am very glad that a quiet, steady and clever man, such as
Hatzfeldt, is in London just now — it would be so easy to make a
mess and so difficult to get out of it. . , .
448

CAPRTVTS CHANCELLORSHIP

In the October of 1894 General von Caprivi resigned 1894
or, as some thought, was removed from the post of
Chancellor, and his place was taken by Prince Chlodwig
von Hohenlohe. The Empress Frederick had long had
a very high opinion of Caprivi, and in her letter to
Queen Victoria of December 18, 1894, expressed it un-
hesitatingly :

Caprivi was looked upon by most sensible and reasonable
people as a drag on the wheel of the Government and a guarantee
that no very sudden adventure would be plunged into. The very
quick, easy and unceremonious way in which he was removed
(at least to all appearances) made many sections of the public appre-
hensive as to what might follow. Prince Hohenlohe, who is certainly
a wise, calm and prudent man, has evidently been taken by storm
and either overridden or has had no time to consider all the conse-
quences of the step that was being taken ; and the strong reactionary
and ultra-conservative spirit that has for a hundred and more years
been the element of all mischief in Germany has gained the upper
hand, and the Government has taken a very rash step, which I fear
will end in a defeat.

I am only a silent and much-distressed spectator of what goes
on. To be able to warn, or to put in a word of advice, one would
have to be on the spot and the first to speak. When things have
once been misrepresented to W, and he has formed an opinion,
which he does in two minutes, and has resolved on a thing and also
carried it immediately into effect, it is of course no use to remon-
strate. He takes criticism very much amiss, and unfortunately it
does not make an impression or have the desired effect of en-
lightening or convincing him. It only irritates and fills him with
suspicion, or offends him ... so that whatever shadow of in-
fluence one might have on this or that occasion or question would
of a certainty be destroyed. There is nothing for it but to shut
one's mouth and only seize whatever good opportunity chance may
offer one, however rare this may be, to say what one thinks or feels.

Poor Prince Hohenlohe has no easy task.

20 449

CHAPTER XVII

CLOSING YEARS

1895 THE Emperor William's choice of a new Chancellor,
Prince Hohenlohe, was one which appealed to the Em-
press Frederick. He had only been Chancellor for three
months when she wrote to Queen Victoria (January 4,
1895):

... I saw Prince Hohenlohe lately and he seemed all right
and to meet all the great difficulties he has to fight against with
the greatest calmness. Not the smallest one is William's impulsive-
ness. William does not know and understand the rights of things,
but speaks and telegraphs with the greatest aplomb and unconcern
where it would be better to say nothing, to form one's own
opinion very slowly and express it very rarely. It makes me so
unhappy to see how great W.'s unpopularity is in the town here,
in the army, in the provinces, amongst the lower orders, etc. Of
course, people are often very unjust, but I am afraid it is the great
imprudence constantly committed which is the cause. I can say
nothing and do nothing. I wish I could hope that there would
be improvement in this respect— all the people that surround him
are too inferior to be of real use in opening his eyes and a help
in forming his judgment. I think Prince Hohenlohe's calm, con-
ciliatory and dignified manner will by degrees have an influence.
He is both wise and patient and has great tact and experience. . . .

Hohenlohe, however, was not strong enough to pre-
vent the Emperor from continuing his practice of mat-
ing provocative speeches, another of which was made at
the opening of the new Parliament House at Berlin on
450

CLOSING YEARS

December 5, 1894. Three days later the Empress wrote 1894
to her mother :

. . . There has been a little row directly in the Reichstag. The
Socialists refused to get up when three cheers for the Emperor
were asked for. The reason they gave was one which I trust
William will hear, and which indeed I was almost furious about
with them. They could not cheer for a man who exhorted his
soldiers in a speech to fire at the rest of the people whenever he
ordered it. This is, of course, only an excuse on the part of the
Socialists, but it shows the harm these distressing and unfortunate
speeches do and how people do not forget them. How unneces-
sary it is for a Sovereign to be present when recruits take the oath,
and then to harangue them! The German press (the Conservative
portion) are very Anglophobe just now for no reason — it is too
stupid. Their vanity and their jealousy of England have been
purposely so stimulated by Prince Bismarck — for his own purposes
— that now he is gone, that section of the public which he was
wont to excite — whenever it suited him — is roused the minute a
cry is raised, and their patriotism bursts forth in the most ridiculous
and unjust attacks on England's rapacity, duplicity, etc., and the
lies they spread, the nonsense they believe, are truly absurd. The
only way is to treat it with the contempt it deserves, and the
wiser heads and all the Liberals regret it very much and think it
very foolish. One must never forget that Prince Bismarck admitted
(in private) that he was only animating this colonial fever in order
to have a bone of contention with England and a means of setting
German public opinion against the English. It was just like him,
and it is great folly and very detrimental to real German interests.

Relations between the Emperor William and Bismarck
now grew in cordiality, and on the occasion of the ex-
Chancellor's eightieth birthday the Emperor presented
him with a sword of honour on March 26, 1895,, at the
ex-Chancellor's residence at Friedrichsruh.

It was rumoured at this time that Mr. Gladstone, the
veteran English Liberal statesman, was also desirous of
paying some honour to the old exponent of Prussianism,
and in June 1895, when he was cruising in German waters

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1895 in one of Sir Donald Currie's ships, the suggestion was
mooted that he should pay a visit to Friedrichsruh. The
Empress Frederick's comment on this piece of news ran
as follows (June 21, 1895) :

. . . "What an odd idea of Mr. Gladstone and his party to wish
to see Prince Bismarck and pay him a visit at Friedrichsruh. Prince
Bismarck so cordially hated Mr. Gladstone and loathed English
Liberals that I think the plan of paying a visit there was natfin the
extreme. . . .

The rumour, however, proved false, and on July 5
the Empress wrote to Queen Victoria :

... I thought it seemed very unlikely that Mr. Gladstone had
wanted to pay Prince Bismarck a visit. The latter has been again
making mischievous and spiteful speeches which in one way I do
not regret, as it shows so plainly what his thoughts are and always
will be in spite of all the fuss made of him. . . .

It was indeed difficult for the ex-Chancellor to change
his outlook on the turn German policy had taken since
1890, and he remained a keen critic of the political situa-
tion. On December 21, 1895, the Empress wrote from
Berlin :

Here I am sorry to say things are not going well. H. v. Keller
has W.'s ear, and W. is very angry with Prince Hohenlohe for
having insisted on K.'s dismissal. If W. only knew what a service
Prince Hohenlohe has rendered him. H. v. K. was simply im-
possible, and to push coercive measures still further against the
Socialists and the press and having these constant arrests and
prosecuting people for lese-majeste was really not possible and
has already created great ill-feeling and discontent and has made
W. still more unpopular. Alas, he does not see the danger — he
is so ill-informed and does not understand the situation; his
attitude is more and more one of an absolute monarch, which
here in Germany is an anomaly. If it were not for Prince Hohen-
lohe, who is so wise and gentle and prudent and tolerant, and has
such an excellent way of dealing with people and such a perfect

45*

CLOSING YEARS

temper, and is so utterly unselfish and disinterested, though he is 1895
not a Liberal, many more dreadful mistakes would be made. These
terrible Junkers, who brought on the year '48 and later regained
the upper hand with my father-in-law, seem all powerful now.
The most retrograde nonsense is preached and carried out ; pietism
is rampant and emanates from Court circles. It is bitter indeed
to have to sit still and look on at all the blunders made. I much
regretted the visit to Friedrichsruh, though I trust it is not a sign
of what is much expected, i.e. a Ministry, Ct. Waldersee and
Herbert Bismarck instead of dear Prince Hohenlohe. It would be
the worst thing possible for Germany, but the Court Party are
working at it, Keller, etc.

Events in the Balkans now again began to attract
attention. In Bulgaria Prince Ferdinand was striving to
shake off Turkish suzerainty, and apparently hoped to
achieve this goal by courting Russian influence.

... I must say [wrote the Empress on January 4, 1895] I am
horrified when I read of what Ferdinand is doing in Bulgaria. It
seems that he is dying to be recognised by Russia and the other
Powers^and thinks to obtain Russia's favour by all these concessions
to the Russophile party, which concessions seem as dangerous to
me as they are undignified, and will not buy Russia's" good graces
one bit, while they will do Bulgaria harm.

A few months later, in the July of that year, M. Stam-
bouloff, the autocratic Bulgarian Prime Minister from 1887
to 1894, was assassinated by Macedonians in Sofia. On
July 20 the Empress Frederick wrote to Queen Victoria :

This murder of poor Stambouloff is a very shocking thing and
very bad for Ferdinand. The German papers are down upon him
in the severest manner — even too harsh, I should think. Still, if
he were wise, he would rush back to Sofia, have a strict inquiry
made and the murderers brought to justice (even though they may
be in the pay of the Russian Panslavists' Committee). Ferdinand
seems bent on coquetting with Russia — in the hopes of being
recognised, which he never will be. I own the state of the East
seems very uncomfortable just now. The horrors that have been

453

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1895 committed in Armenia — the lukewarmness and half-heartedness of
the Great Powers in obliging the Sultan to stop them. The signs
of rising in Macedonia are also very disquieting. How far the Slav
population are encouraged and instigated by Russian Panslavists
and money to rise, one does not know. If the Slav population,
Bulgarians, etc., try to shake off the Turkish yoke now, you may
be sure that all the Greek population in Epirus, Thessalonica and
Crete will do the same — and no Government can keep them quiet,
as for generations it has been their aim and they have dreamed
and thought of nothing else. Least of all had the Greek Govern-
ment the power to keep it down, though it may make every effort
to do so. ... Then we should have the East in a blaze3 and the
Great Powers of Europe are not of one mind and might be arrayed
against each other — indeed probably would, which is terrible to
think of and the consequences incalculable.

Do you know that some years ago Prince Lobanoff [who was
appointed Russian Foreign Minister in March 1895] elaborated a
scheme for putting Bulgaria in order again (in the Russian sense),
Le. regaining it for Russia. He submitted it to the late Emperor,
but it was laid aside as not opportune, and I am afraid now he
(Prince Lobanoff) is in office, he will think the time come to carry
the plan out. Does Lord Salisbury know this ? It is so unfor-
tunate that the Turkish Government and their management of
their home affairs should go from bad to worse — those who must
support and maintain Turkey should, if possible, insist on some
of die abuses ceasing, but it is very very difficult. The whole of
the terrible Eastern question crops up again. How is it going to
be dealt with, one asks. So much has changed since the Crimean
war., and the situation is no longer the same. I am sure it pre-
occupies you too.

"When one has a grand-daughter in Russia, one in Greece and
one in Roumania, one can but feel more than disquieted at the
thoughts of a conflagration being so near — the East is a powder
barrel and at this moment there are sparks enough flying about. . . .
Some people think the Sultan has more confidence in Russia
now than in any other Power — it is most strange.

In the few years that were now left to the Empress
Frederick her relations with her son improved in cordial
454

CLOSING YEARS

feeling and sympathy. It was, however, very distressing 1897
to her that Anglo-German relations, which had been so
fair in the previous decade, were now showing an ever-
growing tension.

I am naturally anxious to do what I can [the Empress wrote to
Baron Reischach from England in 1897] in order to attenuate the
points of friction whenever I become aware of them, but it is
absolutely impossible for me to make any impression on the press
of either country. . . . I fortunately never see the low-class press,
but one cannot afford to ignore it. It would be regrettable if the
Emperor should make a point of noticing it, for he would get a
wrong impression of public opinion. But it is a regrettable fact
that, after making allowances for exaggerations, there should still
remain a sense of distrust for which the Emperor has only himself
to blame. The measure of sympathy which he possessed was very
great and rare, and a fine trump card in his hands with which he
might have obtained many invaluable advantages for Germany.
Time alone can let the grass grow on all that has happened and
re-establish the feeling of mutual confidence. But I consider this
difficult as long as the whole of the German press continues to
act as it has for the last twelve months, when venom and abuse have
exhausted everything that could be said against England. Though
this is rarely mentioned here and the subject hardly ever discussed
before me, the inevitable result will be that England will feel con-
vinced that Germany wishes to be hostile to her on principle, and
not only the Emperor, and will eventually be driven more and
more into the arms of Russia and France, which would upset all
the policy which I have had before me all my life, and which would
link together the two Germanic and Protestant States, and this I
consider to be the most desirable goal for both.

This fond hope has, I fear, for the present been destroyed ; let
us hope it may revive again some day. The harm which Germany
is doing herself is greater than that which she is inflicting on
England. I am afraid that they do not quite realise this in Berlin.
I have said before that I cannot notice anything in the way of ill-
feeling in daily life. The Queen is constantly praising the Emperor
for never missing an opportunity of being courteous and attentive,
saying that he had been exceptionally courteous and sympathetic

455

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1898 on the death of the old Admiral, Sir Alexander Milne, and you
know my mother is very fond of her grandson.1

Much of the tension between Germany and England
at this period was due to Germany's determination to
proceed with the development of her infant fleet and
generally to increase her armaments. It was therefore an
event of colossal importance when, in the summer of
18985 Count Muravieff, on behalf of the Emperor of
Russia, suggested that a conference of all the Great Powers
should be held in order to preserve the general peace
by some measure of disarmament, and on August 31,
18985 the Empress Frederick wrote to Queen Victoria :

I should like to say one word more about the Russian pro-
posal and all one hears. A great many people are delighted — take
it au serieux and say " What a blessing. At last something has
been done in connection with public affairs which is a subject
of mutual congratulation amongst reasonable people." Of course
nations have suffered and languished, and none so much as the
Germans, under the tremendous strain of our increasing armaments,
and no doubt Socialism has grown in consequence, as the country
could not grow so rich as it would have done had the money
been used for other purposes. Some again think that whatever
the immediate result may be (of this proposal) the idea of diminish-
ing armaments which was so advocated by Peace Societies and
peace-loving individuals without influence, or by democratic
elements, passes into a new phase, as it has been taken up by an
Emperor and a Government. Some papers say, " Why did not
such a proposal come from the Queen of England ? She was the
only person from whom it would have appeared natural." I can-
not help thinking that the suddenness of this proposal, so little
in accordance with Russian tradition, with their acknowledged
national programme and their later political moves, points to a
sudden fear having arisen in their minds. The idea had floated
about that the only barrier to their Asiatic plans of conquest would

1 Hugo, Baron von Reischach, Under Three Emperors^ p. 179.

CLOSING YEARS

be a war with England, or an alliance between England and Ger- 18
many, or England and America and Japan. This stroke Muravieff
wished to parry, and no doubt this has been done in a clever way.
It brings Nicky to the fore — it lends importance and power to
Russia and for the moment makes her the centre of European
policy. Can she be taken at her word? I think she is only
acting in her own interest and is far more astute than any of
the Western Powers. Perhaps, too, Russia found the French
Alliance rather a hamper now and then, and wishes to free herself
of it.

It is certain that for many decades Russia has been preparing
for the final conflict with England for the supremacy in Asia.
There is hardly a Russian who conceals that from any but English-
men. Only the other day they ordered ships, naval armaments,
etc., for 190 millions of marks. Russia is not ready to fight England
at present and is afraid that events in China might run her into
the danger of a war with England before she is fully prepared ;
therefore it is her interest to put off any such danger until her
Fleets in the Baltic and the Pacific are increased and modernised,
and until the Manchurian and Siberian Railways are finished and
she is able to move her troops to the different important points.
Russia feels that she has raised suspicion and opposition in England
by her advance in China, and fears that England may be prepared
to resist her with force. This danger is averted by the manifesto,
and the responsibility for hostilities thrown on Russia's adversary
— England. It is certainly very clever, but to me it seems a " Ruse",
as they must know that if a Congress assembles the deliberations
will come to nothing, but they will have gained time and others
will have lost it. That sly fox, Muravieff, has no doubt worked on
the imagination of Nicky, who is so noble minded, kind-hearted
and well-intentioned, and no doubt sincere in what he proposes
to the world. I wonder what you will say to it all.

Do you remember when William summoned the international
Congress — for social reform and for considering the labour ques-
tion and improving the workmen's conditions ? I said it would
come to nothing and was of no use and would never be taken
in earnest, and that I could not share the universal enthusiasm, be-
cause to be a reformer, one must feel it and wish it and know the
question thoroughly, and be a thoroughly liberal-minded, humane
individual. I was right ; not long afterwards, the speeches about

457

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1898 shooting down democrats were held on all occasions, and the
Congress was without results.

Nicky is quite against Constitutions, or liberty for Russia —
this I know — and would never grant the concessions which the
Emperor Alexander IE. had lying ready written out in his table
drawer, with only his signature wanting, when he fell a victim to
the Nihilist bombs. The prisons in Siberia are as terrible as ever,
the police as powerful, and the people have no redress — the
oppression in the Baltic provinces is the same as under Alexander
331. Therefore an era of peace seems hardly in accordance with
the oppression and suffering of a race still governed by despotism,
though the Czar is as good and gentle and kind as a man can be —
anxious for the welfare of his subjects, pure in mind and noble of
intentions, true and upright, and endears himself to all who know
him by his unaffected simple ways and charming manners, so
modest and quiet, and his winning expression. . . .

The Empress was right in her surmise that nothing
tangible would result from the Russia suggestion. At the
Peace Conference which met in London in 1899 the
disarmament proposals were left unsigned, although a
permanent arbitration court was set up at The Hague.

In the three remaining years of the Empress's life two
dominant subjects exercised her mind — the fortunes of
the various members of her family, and the wars in which
England was engaged in the Soudan and in South Africa,
and her letters to Queen Victoria over this period are
filled with comments upon the various births, marriages,
and deaths among her relatives and friends, and with
her opinions on the varying turns and fortunes of the
campaigns. Up to 1898 the Empress had enjoyed ex-
ceptionally good health, but in that year she had a
riding accident, and in the following year she became
the victim of that same disease from which her hus-
band had suffered. On September 6, 1898, four days
after the battle of Omdurman and the hoisting of the
458

CLOSING YEARS

British flag at Khartoum, the Empress wrote to Queen 1898
Victoria :

I would have written yesterday to thank you once more for
your telegram and tell you once more how sincerely I rejoice at
the success of our arms and what is, I hope, the termination of the
Egyptian War, and offer you my sincerest congratulations, but was
prevented. The fact is I had what might have been a very serious
accident, but I escaped with only a slight injury to my right hand.
I was out riding with Mossy and Frau v. Reischach when my
horse took fright at a steam threshing-machine in a field and shied
violently. I tried to quiet it, and the groom got off to lead it past
the machine, but it reared in one moment and swung round, throw-
ing me off, happily on the right side, and my habit caught in the
pommel, which broke the weight of the fall, but it was very danger-
ous as my head and shoulders were on the ground almost under
the horse's hoofs. However, I got up and walked part of the way
home and only felt shaken and stiff towards evening. Whether
it was a kick or a tread on my right hand, I do not know, but it
was extremely painful. I went straight to my doctor, who told
me to put my hand in ice, which I did, and the swelling soon
went down. I can use it for writing, but not for other things. It
was my favourite horse — a thoroughbred — usually so charming to
ride, but I perceived on the road that something was wrong with
her, as when she first heard the machine she stopped and snorted
and I had some difficulty in getting her along — she jumped and
plunged and finally reared, as I said. But it was a very lucky escape
— nothing of any consequence happily — and I am all right today,
except for a headache, and much ashamed that it should have
happened.

Two months later the Empress visited England for
the last time, staying with Queen Victoria at Balmoral
and with Lord Rosebery at Dalmeny Park. On her arrival
from Balmoral at the latter residence she wrote to her
mother (October 31, 1898) :

I was so sad to leave Balmoral — sweet place — with a thousand
charms, dear and precious recollections. I enjoyed the time there so
much and am so grateful to you for having allowed me to come and

459

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1898 for all your kindness. The journey went off very well. I admired
the drive to Ballater more than ever — the maze of golden birch trees
seemed to give quite a glow to the hill-sides. At Aberdeen I caught
sight of the Sirdar for a moment before he left for Balmoral — we
had a little drive down to the harbour after lunch in the Hotel
and before the train started. The line along the coast is very
interesting, and passing over the Tay and Forth bridges especially.
It was nearly dark and the moon rising when we passed through
this fine old Park. Lord Rosebery is looking very well and seemed
much pleased at your message. His daughters are very pretty and
pleasing, I think.

The following day the Empress wrote :

I wonder how you all are at dear Balmoral, for which I have no
small degree of Heimweh, This morning was beautiful, but it soon
became misty and windy, though fine on the whole. "We went to
Edinburgh in the morning to St. Giles* Cathedral and then to the
Castle and to the National Gallery. I found the collection increased
and very well hung and lit — some such fine things. Then we
walked a little in Princes Street and went into one or two shops,
but I saw nothing much that I cared for. Edinburgh looked very
fine, I thought, and I was exceedingly sorry that we had no time to
go to Holyrood. I hear the Chapel is in the same terrible state as
I saw it 14 years ago — when by stooping down I could see through
the iron bars of the side Chapel the bones and skulls lying about.
People have an idea that you do not wish anything restored. I
said I thought that was a mistake and that you had lately said you
thought the tombs should be looked after and put in order.
General Chapman was much pleased when he heard that ; he too
was grieved at the state of utter neglect of this historical spot and
place of burial, so near a Royal Palace inhabited now and then by
yourself.

This afternoon we went to see Hopetoun — what a stately house
and magnificent place altogether! I was much interested in seeing
it. The views are beautiful and the trees, etc., so fine.

I think Lord Rosebery's daughters quite charming, so gentle
and nice, with such pretty manners, and bright and intelligent.
I think them pretty too — with very good figures and lovely
complexions. . . .
460

CLOSING YEARS

In the May of the following year Queen Victoria 1899
celebrated her eightieth birthday, and the letter which
the Empress Frederick wrote to her mother for that
occasion exemplifies to a marked degree the affection and
appreciation which existed between the two. The letter,
dated May 22, 1899, ran :

As, alas., I cannot be with you on your dear birthday, these lines
must convey at least a little of all I should like to say.

All the gratitude, the love and veneration, they cannot express,
which fill my heart and banish sad thoughts, nor all the heartfelt
and tender good wishes and blessings.

Eighty years of grace and honours — of usefulness and goodness
— of trials and sorrows — with much happiness and many joys such
as are given to few, though mingled with troubles and anxieties
inseparable from a unique position as a sovereign and mother.
Truly a reason for us to praise and thank God for so many mercies,
and to pray that bright and peaceful years may crown the restl
The thought of all those who would have loved to have celebrated
this anniversary with you, and who are no more amongst us, will,
I know, not be absent from your mind, and their dear memory
will be recalled, with all the affection they received and bestowed
in our dear home, and which can never cease to be missed. I join
my sisters in the gift of candelabra for the Indian room and
venture to send a tiny locket, which I hope you will put on a
bracelet or watch chain.

May the day be very fine and dear Windsor not too tiring for
you.

I must not write a longer letter today, as I know the flood of
letters which will come in and how many will have to help to send
answers 1

Good-bye, dearest beloved Mama — once more let me say how
deeply grateful I am not only for past love and kindness but for
all the tender sympathy which has been such a comfort to me.

Towards the end of that year, 1899, the varying
fluctuations of the South African war, which broke out
in October, aroused the keen interest of the Empress, who

461

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1899 was naturally hopeful of British success. She followed
every battle eagerly and read the detailed accounts of every
engagement in the The Times and the Daily Telegraph
with a view to understanding the British point of view,
for the Germans had from the first taken up a very hostile
attitude towards England and had sided with the Boers.
The German press rang with tales of British barbarity
which found credence with the semi-educated, and pub-
lished scathing criticisms on British strategy. Powerless
to contradict these fabrications publicly, she wrote in-
numerable letters to her friends putting forward the
British version. On October 20, 1899, there occurred
the first battle of the war at Glencoe or Dundee, when six
Boer guns were captured. General Sir William Symons,
the British leader, was, however, mortally wounded in
the fight. The victory elated the Empress, who wrote to
Queen Victoria on October 24 :

Your telegram yesterday caused me great joy. With all my
heart I congratulate you on the brilliant success. Alas, it seems to
have been dearly bought, and brave valuable lives have been lost.
You call the place Dundee, whereas the newspapers call the battle
" Glencoe ". I know the two places are quite near each other and
that Glencoe Camp was the place most threatened. How splendidly
our troops seem to have behaved — all the boasting and savagery
of these horrid Boers and all their fury was of no use to them.
Their numbers must have been very overwhelming. I only hope
Mr. Rhodes is safe, as they have sworn to take his life and intend
to attack Kimberley. I am so distressed to hear of poor General
Symons being mortally wounded. Is there really no chance of his
recovery ? Poor man, after his bravery and his excellent manage-
ment of his troops and masterly arrangements, it does seem so sad.
It is pleasant to read the Italian and Austrian papers, in contrast
to the French, Russian and German.

I cannot help hoping you will go to Italy in spring and not to
France ; really the French have been too nasty. I wonder how it
will be with William's visit? His foolish telegram to Kruger

462

CLOSING YEARS

after all has to answer for a very great deal, and it is a great satis- 1899
faction to me that the German Government should in some ways
have to eat their words — after that telegram they deserved to have
every imaginable difficulty, etc., to show them its folly.

A week later, on November 2, 1899, the Empress
wrote from Trento :

The sad news of the reverse at Ladysmith has made me dread-
fully unhappy, and I can imagine how it must distress you and
what anxiety it must cause you and everyone in England. Our
forces were indeed too slender at that place to oppose such an
enormous number. I only hope and trust that we shall be able to
inflict a signal defeat on those dreadful Boers elsewhere and that
our success will not be doubtful in the end. If only part of our
Fleet were in Delagoa Bay and reinforcements could reach Lady-
smith from another quarter. So much advice is given the Boers
from German, French, Russian and Dutch sources that, of course,
they know quite well what to do and where our weakest points
are. You cannot think how I feel being far away and not knowing
what is going on, as the Times and the Daily Telegraph arrive
so late. It does not do to lose heart and see all en noir because
of this sad misfortune at Ladysmith. The chances of war are
always uncertain and " luck " is a fitful Goddess. I am pining for
more and better news. I wish I could fly over to you and help
to read out to you and write for you at this anxious time.

My doctor arrived yesterday, and today I am going to begin
the electricity and massage cure for this awful lumbago, which till
now has yielded to nothing. The constant pain is so wearing and
the helplessness very trying. My only comfort in not being with
you now is that I should be a trouble and a cumbrance in your
house in my present state.

The Empress's ailment, which the German doctors
cautiously diagnosed as lumbago, was, however, much
more serious, and on November 7, 1899, the Empress
Frederick wrote to Queen Victoria :

I suffer very much indeed from my back at night and lying
down or sitting in a chair. I can manage a little walking and

463

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1900 driving, so that I can be out a good deal, but I am very much
hampered in all my movements.

What a mercy that Sir G. White seems to hold out at Lady-
smith and that the railway communication with the coast is not
yet destroyed 3 and that the wounded are doing well, and new troops
arriving at the Cape. God grant all may go well in spite of all the
terrible difficulties in the way.

These letters are typical of the Empress's correspond-
ence with her mother during the succeeding months.
British successes would elate her, and reverses distress
her. She was most anxious that Germany should preserve
a strict neutrality and keep in check the undoubted pro-
Boer feeling among certain sections of the empire. By
the end of the year 1899 the Empress, who was now in
Italy, was compelled to spend the greater part of her day
in bed, and her enforced inaction resulted in her letters
to her mother becoming more frequent than before. A
typical letter of this period is the following, which is
dated January i, 1900 :

The first words this morning and my motto for the century :
" God save the Queen ". Never was this prayer breathed more
tenderly and devotedly, nor from a more grate&il heart.

One hates parting, even from an imaginary bit of a past so
precious, and one loves not beginning a new phase and embarking
on the unknown, though we do so every day of our lives without
thoughts as solemn as those with which we enter upon a new year,
and this time a new century.

My thoughts are so much with you all today, and how I should
love to talk over the many subjects of deep interest and anxiety
which crowd in upon one. I hope the news from South Africa
is more reassuring. William wrote me a card saying he hoped
peace would soon be made and this useless bloodshed put an end
to. These sentiments in this form I cannot echo. Heaven knows
each drop of precious British blood seems a drop too much to be
shed, but to allow ourselves to be driven into giving up a struggle
which was unavoidable and forced upon us at the very moment

464

CLOSING YEARS

when it is most unfavourable to us, I should think most deplorable 1900
and disastrous — a mistake all round, which would only please and
encourage our enemies — anxious for anything that can injure us
— and dishearten and distress our friends.

My opinion is that England will come out of this contest, which
she was bound to undertake as part of her mission in the spread
and establishment of civilisation, stronger than she went in. She
will see who are her friends and who her foes, and she will also see
whatever defects there may be in her armaments and will reform
whatever is faulty. The Empire will be welded more firmly to-
gether than ever by having faced a common danger. England will
put forth her strength and, I doubt not, weather the storm.

I am able to be up for a little in an arm-chair and on the sofa.
The pain is still very acute. Professor Renvers is coming to see
me tomorrow and new endeavours will be made to cure this severe
and tedious attack, which causes so much suffering. . . .

In spite of the growing acuteness of her sufferings the
Empress was able on one occasion to set foot again on
what was technically British "soil", for the British
man-o'-war Caesar called at La Spezia. On February 25
the Empress wrote to her mother :

... I feel that you must be very anxious about the struggle
between Lord Roberts and General Cronje. One trembles at the
thought of all the bloodshed, and yet one knows that nothing
decisive can be arrived at without another battle or two. If Cronje
is overcome, there remains Ladysmith to be relieved and Joubert's
forces to be disposed of, Bloemfontein to be taken and Pretoria
reached. It keeps one in a fever of suspense. . . .

I hope I shall be able to manage to see some of the lovely spots
round here, wherever the roads are not rough and a long drive
not needed. I should love to do some sketches, for there are most
beautiful bits of coast, rocks and wooded hills here, much wilder
than on the other side of the Riviera. The villages too are almost
untouched and most picturesque. A magnificent man-o*-war, the
Caesar, was in the harbour of La Spezia, and we went on board.
I managed it somehow, and was indeed happy to be once more
on a British ship. Of course I could not go over the ship, but
rested in the splendid cabin of the Admiral. . . .

2H 465

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1900 Two days later she wrote :

Only one line of congratulation and to say how delighted I
am to hear this most important and excellent news of Cronje's
surrender with 7000 men to Lord Roberts.

I cannot say how thankful I feel for you, for Lord Roberts
and Lord Kitchener — for the Army in general and for all England.
I am sure it is part of a great load off your mind. Now one only
wishes that Ladysmith and Mafeking should be relieved, General
Joubert beaten, and Bloemfontein and Pretoria taken, and the war
ended. One wishes Sir R. Buller to have his share of luck and
good fortune, and poor Lord Methuen too. It would be splendid
if the decision could be come to before the Paris Exhibition is
opened. Our success would be a pill for the French, Russians and
Germans to swallow, which they would not like at all and which
would do them no harm and only good. . . .

The relief of Ladysmith awakened equal rejoicings,
and when, on Queen Victoria's birthday, the news of the
relief of Mafeking was confirmed, the Empress wrote
from Cronberg (May 24, 1900) :

Let me again wish you, with all my heart, every blessing on
this day so dear to us — and say how much my thoughts are with
you — and with how many a fervent prayer. So many thanks for
your dear letter of the 2ist received yesterday and for two tele-
grams— the one with the news that the report of the relief of
Mafeking was officially confirmed, and the other that you safely
arrived at dear Balmoral, where I hope you will spend this dear
day as peacefully and pleasantly as possible and enjoy a little rest
and quiet after so much fatigue. Your visit to the poor wounded
must have been very interesting — their pleasure to see you must
have been great It is very tiresome that the Boers have gone to
Laing's Nek again and are troubling us in Natal and giving Sir R.
Buller much work — no doubt in hopes to affect Lord Roberts'
onward march. How wonderfully well Colonel Baden-Powell
managed at Mafeking — indeed he deserves all praise possible. I
am afraid the war is not likely to end just yet and a good deal
remains to be done. Still one feels all confidence that things are
going well and will terminate satisfactorily and that there will be
466

CLOSING YEARS

no giving way or misplaced generosity and leniency, and that fate 1900
will overtake that old hypocrite Kruger in spite of his being as sly
as many foxes put together — and the intriguing Leyds, whose lies
even now have not abated. . . .

In her letter to her mother of July 4, 1900, there
occurs a last reference to her son, the Emperor William,
who once again had shocked the Empress Frederick by
a tactless public speech.

. . . Dear William has made [she wrote] a new speech with
much fanfaronade. I wish the German Government would give
up the policy of constant fireworks, sensational coups, etc., as the
vanity and conceit of the public and their chauvinism are stimulated
thereby to a perfectly ridiculous degree. . . .

I am about again, but in great pain . . . but nothing can be
done, so one has to bear it. ...

The Empress's last letter to her mother was written
on October 5, 1900.

... I have been suffering [she wrote by the hand of her
daughter Charlotte] to such an extent, but though in no ways
alarming, so I trust you will not worry yourself one moment
about me. I shall be prevented for some days from leaving my
bed, and the attacks of spasms that seize me in the back, limbs and
bones are so frequent that it is difficult to find a pause long enough
to write in. . . .

The following months gave the Empress no respite
from her terrible malady. It seemed, indeed, as if the last
months of the Empress were to be marked by the most
agonising suffering and by a successive series of unhappy
events. Only three months earlier, on July 30, 1900, her
brother Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, who had suc-
ceeded " Uncle Ernest " in 1893, died at Rosenau. But
the sufferings of the Empress were mitigated in no small
degree by the tender affection and consideration shown
towards her by a few of her friends and many of her

467

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

1900 relatives. Of these latter, the most considerate was her
eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, who on the occasion
of Prince Alfred's funeral took the opportunity to spend
many weeks at Homburg and to make frequent visits to
his sister at Cronberg. The Empress's eldest son also
stayed in the same district at the Castle of Wilhelmshohe
for a period. He seemed to share the Prince of Wales's
concern at the invalid's condition, and his demeanour
towards her and his uncle was unusually considerate.

1901 The last bitter blow that fate had in store for the
Empress was the death of the mother she loved so much
on January 22, 1901. All through the Empress's life her
mother had been a never-failing help, and her tender
solicitude and affection had assisted the Empress through
all the difficult passages of her life.

The Empress's own end was now not far distant. On
July 24, 1901, the Emperor William wrote to his uncle,
now King Edward, of a visit he had paid to the Empress
on July 15, when he found her very despondent but able
to write letters and to interest herself" in everything that
is going on in the world, politics as well as literature and
art ". The Emperor thought her no worse than when
the King had last seen her, and anticipated no crisis until
the winter, but soon it became clear to her two devoted
daughters, the Duchess of Sparta and Princess Frederick
Charles of Hesse, that she was sinking. A fortnight later,
on August 5, the Empress died. By her own direction
she was buried by the side of the husband she had loved
so well and who had brought her the greatest happiness
she had known.

With the death of the Empress Frederick there passed
from the European stage one of the most tragic figures
468

CLOSING YEARS

in nineteenth-century history. It is difficult in the re-
trospect to attempt to allocate the blame or praise for
those events in her life which caused so much contem-
porary controversy. Certain it is that in any summing
up her complex character cannot be disregarded. As
her mother's daughter she quite naturally had from her
earliest days a pride in her British birth, but when she
married and went to live in Germany no woman could
have thrown herself more thoroughly into the life and
feelings of the German people than she did. She spoke
their language perfectly and had no difficulty in under-
standing their point of view. Her pride in the German
army, her love of the German people, her intense de-
sire that Germany should take the lead in everything,
were traits in her character that might have been ex-
pected to endear her to all Germans. Although married
to one of the great heroes of Germany, an impeccable
wife, a warm-hearted friend and a charitable Princess,
she was yet unpopular, and the main reason was that she
remained " die Engldnderin " in German eyes, a phrase
that, in the Germany of the nineteenth century, bore
as much scornful acerbity as the term " Bolshevist " in
England to-day. A truer conception of her outlook is
perhaps contained in the description which her son, the
Emperor William, gave of her in his book : " She was
always most German in England and most English in
Germany ". And that was the main cause of her un-
popularity.

Another of the principal stumbling-blocks was that
despite her sex she was supposed to interfere in poli-
tics, and this was anathema to Bismarck and the Junkers,
who had long ago satisfied themselves that Kinder , Kirche
itnd Kilche were the only legitimate interests for women.

469

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Then she was a Liberal. In those days, while the intelli-
gentsia of Germany were in great part Liberal, the reign-
ing families and practically the whole aristocracy gave
the cold shoulder to anyone suspected of even the mildest
form of Liberalism. Bismarck had succeeded in making
the Liberal party thoroughly unpopular, and therefore it
required persons of some character to allow themselves
to be ticketed as Liberals. Both the Emperor Frederick
and the Empress, when they were the Crown Prince and
Crown Princess, never hesitated for a moment to pro-
claim themselves Liberals, but while such ideas were
regarded as possible in the case of a great soldier, they
were not to be tolerated in the case of a woman, although
what was then understood by " Liberal principles " was
vastly different from the interpretation that is placed
upon that conception to-day. Liberalism in the middle
of the last century was a school of political thought which
believed that progress should be made through the means
of democratic representation such as England then en-
joyed. Germany by contrast was then an autocratic
state, in which either the Chancellor or the Emperor
wielded supreme power. To have openly found fault
with the Crown Princess's Liberal ideas, or to have
condemned her because she was a woman interested in
politics, might have had dangerous repercussions and led
to unforeseen results. Therefore, the safest accusation
to bring against her was that she was an Englishwoman
intriguing against Germany ; this brought together all
patriotic Germans, no matter what their politics might
be, and created a feeling of distrust for the Empress.
Further, in order to give some plausible explanation of
the fact that the Crown Prince himself held Liberal views,
it was said that he was entirely under the domination of
470

CLOSING YEARS

his wife. For these reasons the Crown Princess's un-
popularity grew, and, unfortunately, she was not gifted
with the necessary tact for so difficult a situation. Alle,
intellectual and talented, she particularly wished to be
of service to the country of her adoption, but she had
been brought up to express herself with perfect frank-
ness and she never hesitated to state her point of view,
sometimes with tactless honesty.

They have a saying in Spain, " Clever people say
stupid things, stupid people do them ", and certainly in
the Empress's case this was true, as she never learnt
caution. Curiously enough there have been two pre-
cisely similar cases in Europe of late years. The Empress
of Russia was accused of pro-German proclivities during
the war and was said to dominate her husband, when
two totally different reasons, her love of mysticism and
her infatuation with that sinister figure Rasputin, were
the real causes of her unpopularity. The second instance
is Queen Sophie of Greece, who would be entitled to
have German sympathies, but who was accused of
dominating her husband, King Constantine, whereas there
is no doubt that all these stories were invented to throw
a cloud over the monstrous blunders the British Govern-
ment made in dealing with the situation in Greece.

The most tragic event in the Empress's life was of
course the death of her husband, and the deplorable
quarrels that surrounded it. It is difficult even now to
see what the outcome might have been if the Empress
had placed her whole reliance on the German doctors.
Possibly the storm of criticism that assailed her during
this period might have been avoided, but it is extremely
doubtful whether, since the illness proved eventually to
be cancer, any other doctor, or any other treatment, could

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

then have effected the cure of her husband, or even any
alleviation of his sufferings.

Since the death of the Empress Frederick the main
criticism directed against her has been based on the
assumption that she had been harsh in her treatment of
her eldest son. But can anyone after reading the letters
given in this volume come to any other conclusion
but that, in the main, the differences that occurred be-
tween them were due to the actions of the Emperor?
Until late in his teens there was no shadow between
them. In fact, until the Emperor left the parental roof
and got into the hands of the Junker party headed by
Bismarck and Waldersee, a party that was eventually to
lead Germany to world power and downfall, the rela-
tions between the two were all that could be desired.
Once the future Emperor was caught up in that powerful
clique, his sympathy with his mother vanished and hence-
forth cool indifference was his attitude towards her.
When he succeeded to the throne, he had quite made up
his mind that he would never allow his mother to inter-
fere in politics in any way. Not only did she hold
advanced Liberal opinions which conflicted with his auto-
cratic nature, but he could never dismiss from his mind
the sneers of Bismarck at " Petticoat Government *'.
Therefore, he resolved that no one should ever accuse
him of being influenced in any way by his mother.
Whether kinder methods on his part would not have
produced the same result it is difficult to say, but he was
determined to prevent her taking any active part in
political and social life. And the pathetic part of it all
was that she was really fond of him. Had her feelings
been indifferent, his behaviour to her would never have
hurt her as it did, but she loved him and was ever
472

CLOSING YEARS

grateful for the occasional signs of affection he showed
her.

The Empress Frederick perhaps failed to make allow-
ance for the difficult position in which her friends and
even members of her family were placed. Many must
have sympathised with her, but to do so openly meant
incurring the wrath of the Emperor and Bismarck, and
therefore the safest course was to remain silent. Those
who did actually espouse her cause, like Geffcken, Roggen-
bach and others, were so persecuted that their careers
were ruined. It is hardly to be wondered at that when
she became a person who had ceased to count, no one
dared to come forward and defend her.

The Empress Frederick indeed suffered from the dis-
advantage of being born before her time, and also,
paradoxically, of living too long. Up to the year 1871
her life had been one remarkable series of successes. In
her birth and childhood she was fortunate. In her
marriage she was happy beyond measure : and the wars
of 1864, 1866 and 1870-71 had crowned her husband
with laurels well deserved. Their union had been blessed
by eight children, all, in 1872, surviving with the excep-
tion of Sigismund. Here, indeed, was the Princess at the
zenith of human happiness, at the pinnacle as it were of
her life ; after that, blow upon blow assailed her. First
came the loss of her beloved child Waldemar in 1879 :
the next decade saw the promise of a throne, but, with
the fulfilment of that promise, the illness and death of her
husband. Then followed the gradual alienation of the
sympathy of her eldest son, the steadily increasing ring of
enemies, until finally we see the deserted widow in retire-
ment with scarcely a faithful friend left. Calumny and
vituperation have pursued her even beyond the grave.

473

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

She was a Cassandra to whom none would listen : an
Andromache for whom none had sympathy. Her Liberal
counsels, if followed, might have averted the wrath to
come. It is the irony of fate that those who insulted and
derided her during her lifetime and after, were also those
whose autocratic and militaristic views eventually brought
the Germany that she loved to the abyss of disaster. It
is in the nature of tragedy to evoke musings upon what
might have been. Had the counsels which she gave, and
which drew down upon her the disapprobation of the
gallery, been suffered to prevail, would Germany have been
saved from the disasters that eventually overwhelmed
her?

Calumniated, abandoned, distrusted and even hated as
she was by Germany in her lifetime and for a quarter of a
century after, the time is surely coming when that great
country will recognise that in the Empress Frederick it
had a sovereign lady who, in spite of her faults, in spite of
the defects of her qualities, always devoted her energies to
secure for Germany the political and cultural leadership
of continental Europe.

474

INDEX

Abdul Hamid, Sultan, 145, 147

Aberdeen, 460

Achenbach, Oberprasident von,

435
Acton, Lord, 193

Adelaide, Duchess of Kent, i,

Adlerberg, General, 181
Albany, Duke of. See Leopold,

Prince

Albedyll, General von, 264
Albert, Prince Consort, i, 2, 3,

4,5, 9>*7, i?, 22, 23, 24, 25,

26, 30, 34, 88, 104, 106, 142,

159,359,360,366
Albert Edward, Prince of Wales.

&* Edward VII., King
Albert Victor, Prince, Duke of

Clarence, 434
Aldenhoven, Dr., 396
Alexander II., Tsar of Russia,

129, 130, 136, 139, 144, 146,

148, 154, 177, 180, 181, 182,

184, l8j, 201

Alexander HI., Tsar of Russia,
205, 207, 209, 218, 222, 296,
298

Alexander, Prince, of Batten-
berg, ruler of Bulgaria (" San-
dra"), 199-223, 294, 295,
296, 298, 299, 300, 321, 331,
385, 388, 420

Alexander, Prince, of Hesse,
201

Alexander, Prince, of Servia,
440

Alexandra, Queen (Princess of
Wales), 22, 50, 51, 52, 55,
128, 392, 393

Alfred, Prince, Duke of Edin-
burgh, later of Saxe-Coburg,
27,34,174,182,185,467,4^8

Alice, Princess (Grand Duchess
of Hesse-Darmstadt), second
daughter of Queen Victoria,
77,79,91,100,119,171,201,

395

Alix, Empress of Russia, grand-
daughter of Queen Victoria,

47i

Alma-Tadema, Sir L., 425
Alsace and Lorraine (Elsass and

Lothringen), 91, 93, 121, 335
Alvensleben, Countess, 87
Ampthill, Lord. See Russell,

Odo

Anhalt, Duke df, 67
Anthony, Prince, of Hohen-

zollern-Sigmaringen, 71
Antoinette (Antonia), Princess

(Leopold), of Hohenzollera-

Sigmaringen, 71, 72
Apponyi, Count, 75, 76
Argyll, Duke of, 197
Armstrong, Lord, 406
Army Bills, Caprivi's (1892),

* „

Arnim, Count von, 388

475

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Arthur, Duke of Connaught,
167, 169, 171, 173, 174

Augusta, Princess (later Queen
of Prussia and German Em-
press), 4, 15, 23, 30, 32, 45,
51, 96, 97, 98, 115, 116, 119,
131, 132, 140, 158, 165, 253,
288, 303, 326, 329, 330, 351,
359, 3<$3, 3^5, 3^8, 390, 398,
400, 419, 435, 445

Augusta Victoria, Princess, of
Schleswig - Holstein - Sonder -
burg-Augustenburg, German
Empress (" Dona "), 177,
200, 318, 362, 400, 401, 410,

411,432

Augustus, Duke of Sussex, i
Austria, 13 ; war with Prussia,

56-69

Babelsberg Castle, 17

Baden, Grand Duchess of, 150

Baden, Grand Duke of, 150

Baden-Powell, Colonel (after-
wards Lt.-Gen. Sir Robert),
466

Balmoral Castle, 5, 459

Battenberg, Prince Alexander
of, see Alexander, Prince, of
Battenberg ; Prince Henry
of, see Henry, Prince, of
Battenberg ; Prince Louis of,
see Louis, Prince, of Batten-
berg; Princess Henry of,
see Henry, Princess, of Bat-
tenberg

Bavaria, Ludwig IL, King of,
104, 105, no, 115

Bazaine, Marshal, 86, 91, 97

Beaconsfield, Lord, 146, 149,
151, 152, 157, 163, 164, 165,
187, 1 88

Beatrice, Princess (Princess
Henry of Battenberg), daugh-
ter of Queen Victoria, 201,
202, 293, 297, 299

476

Bedford, Duke of, 197
Benedetti, Vincent, Count, 73,

86, 90

Beresford, Lord Charles, 273, 414
Bergmann, Prof. Ernst von,
200, 225, 226, 230, 232, 233,
235? 254, 264, 276, 277, 278,
307, 308, 309, 310, 325, 326,
327, 33i? 332, 333, 334, 342,
359, 379, 382, 385
Berlepsch, M. de, 407
Berlin, Congress of, 162-4
Bernard, Prince, of Saxe-Mein-
ingen, 167, 170, 357, 383, 390,

435
BernstorfT, Count von, 75, 76,

100

Bernstorff, Countess von, 133
Bieberstein, Baron Marschall

von, 413
Bigge, Major (afterwards Lord

itamfordham), 293
Bismarck, Prince (Prince von
Bismarck - Schonhausen) :
views on marriage of Prin-
cess Royal of England, 10 ;
vetoes appointment of Sir
Robert Morier as Ambassador,
23 ; summoned to Berlin by
King William L, 36 ; policy
of, 37 ; and Crown Princess
Frederick, 37, 38, 48, 56, 64,
66, 128, 131, 137-9, 147, 191,
192, 193, 214, 215, 216, 217,
220, 246, 272, 282 ; and Con-
stitution of 1850, 40 ; ignores
Crown Prince's letter, 41, 44 ;
views on breach between
Crown Prince and King
William I. of Prussia, 44 seq. ;
hostility of Crown Prince,
47, 48; fosters anti-English
sentiments in Prussia, 49 ;
views on Germanic Con-
federation, 49 ; and war with
Denmark, 5 1 ; policy of

INDEX

Prussian aggrandisement, 56 ;
attitude to engagement of
Princess Helena, 58 ; grow-
ing hostility to Austria, 58 ;
desires war with' France, 70 ;
and Ems telegram, 74 ; on
staff of King William I. dur-
ing Franco-Prussian "War,
78 ; on English influence in
Crown Prince's circle, 93 ;
for bombardment of Paris,
101, 1 02, no; favours crea-
tion of a German Empire,
103, 104; signs armistice
with France, 120 ; relations
with Russia (1871—78), 129-
166 ; effects the Dreikaiser-
lund, 129 ; and London Con-
ference (March 1871), 130;
attitude towards Empress
Augusta, 131, 132, 149 ; sus-
picion of France, 136 ; and
Roman Catholic priesthood,
137; Queen Victoria's atti-
tude to, 139-40, 142, 296,
300 ; difficulties in domestic
politics, 149; suggests British
occupation of Egypt, 151;
and Congress of Berlin, 162-
164 ; opinion of Lord Bea-
consfield, 164; alliance of
Prussia and Austria, 187;
autocratic government of,
191 ; anti- English attitude
of, 192 ; attitude to Bul-
garian affairs (1886-88), 199
seg., 294 ; and engagement
of Princess Victoria of
Prussia, 201, 202, 294, 296,
298 ; change in policy (1887),
213 ; and illness of Crown
Prince Frederick, 226, 232,
331, 335 ; and summons to
Sir Morell Mackenzie, 229,
282, 284, 331 ; twenty-fifth
anniversary of appointment,

246; and Orleans family
2(58 ; publishes text of treaty
against Russia, 275 ; and
Empress Frederick after her
accession, 292, 293, 313, 314 ;
rumoured resignation of, 294-
295, 299 ; Lord Salisbury's
account of, 295 ; and Queen
Victoria (1888), 302, 303,
304, 306; attitude on death
of Emperor Frederick HI.,
3 17, 318 ; and Empress Fred-
erick after death of her hus-
band, 318, 325, 332, 338, 353,
358 ; espionage system of,
339? 35<S 3^55 and War
Diary of Emperor Frederick
IE., 346, 348, 350, 351, 357;
attack on memory of Em-
peror Frederick III., 357;
influence on Emperor "William
II., 358, 359>3<$o, 404; atti-
tude to Emperor William II.,
372 ; colonial policy of, 373 ;
breach with Emperor William
IL, 376, 387, 4375 old age,
etc., insurance scheme of,
377; and Count von Wal-
dersee, 383 ; fall of, 387-
414 ; opposition to Hatzfeldt
marriage, 388 ; prospect of
retirement or death of, 391,
412 ; attitude towards Eng-
land (1889), 392; fails to
deny Freytag's slanders, 396 ;
and Socialist Law of 1873,
403 ; protectionist policy of,
406 ; resignation of, 410,
411; and Empress Frederick
after his fall, 411, 414, 415,
426, 442-4, 448 ; rapproche-
ment between Emperor
William II. and, 429, 430-32,
436, 446, 451 ; and colonial
policy of Emperor William
IE., 446-7, 451; presented with

477

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

sword of honour, 451 ; and
Mr. Gladstone, 451-2. See
also 94, 100, 109, 126, 157,
171, 176, 187, 195, 239, 245,
253, 323

Bismarck, Count Herbert, 195,
229, 244, 245, 300, 302, 317,
333, 334, 335, 336> 337, 35^,
362, 372, 382, 384, 413, 414,

427,431,453
Bismarck (-Schonhausen),

Countess, later Princess, 102,

107, 150

Black Sea, neutralisation of, 130
Bloemfontein, 465, 466
Bloomfield, Lady, 10, 21
Bloornfield, Lord, 9, 10
Bliicher, Countess, 58
Blumenthal, General von, 78,

So, 102, 107, 336
Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon,

Prince Imperial, 90
Bose, General, 84
Bosnia, 145

Boulanger, General, 414
Boulangist party in France, 423
Bourbaki, General, 117
Bramann, Dr., 257, 275, 278,

307,311,327,342
Brassey, Lord, 273, 406
Bright, John, 216
Briihl, Countess von, 276, 354
Buchanan, Sir Andrew, 54, 55
" Bulgarian atrocities ", 140, 145
Buller, Sir Redvers, 466
Biilow, Prince, 105
Bunsen, Georg von, 35
Busch, J. H. M., 43, 44, 109,

202, 302, 346, 426, 427

Cambridge, George, Duke of
(" Uncle George "), 66

Caprivi, General Georg, Count
von, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414,
415, 427, 430, 436, 439, 440,
449

478

Cardwell, Edward (afterwards

Viscount), 82
Carnarvon, Lord, 158, 159
Carol I., King of Roumania.
See Charles, Prince, of Rou-
mania

Carolath, Prince Henry, 402
Carpenter, Boyd, Bishop, 9
Cavour, Count, 133
Chamberlain, Joseph, 195, 196
Chanzy, General, 117
Chapman, General, 460
Charles, Prince (of Hesse), 32
Charles, Prince, of Roumania

(King Carol I.), i57? 373

Charlotte, Princess (of Wales),
daughter of King George
IV., i

Charlotte, Princess, of Saxe-
Meiningen (" Moretta ")?
eldest daughter of Empress
Frederick, 24, 167, 168, 173,
260, 267, 275, 333, 383, 384,
390, 394, 467

Chlodwig, Prince von Hohen-
lohe, 317,412, 449,450, 452

Christian IX., King of Den-
mark (Prince Christian of
Schleswig - Holstein - Sender -
burg-Glucksburg), 22, 50,

5i
Christian, Prince of Schleswig-

Holstein - Augustenburg -

Sonderburg, 57, 58, 119, 177,

182, 338, 372
Christian, Princess (Helena,

third daughter of Queen

Victoria), 57, 63, 177, 327
Churchill, Dowager Lady, 293
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 221,

222, 223, 414
Clarence, Albert Victor, Duke

of, 434
Clarendon, Earl of, 5, 8, 17, 23,

3*, 33, 72

Clementine, Princess, or

INDEX

Bourbon - Orleans (" Aunt

Clem"), 218
Coal strike, Westphalian and

Silesian (1889), 376, 377
Cobden, Richard, 7
Coburg, Duke of, 50
" Coburgers ", in Berlin, 35
Congo, Germany and the, 446
Connaught, Arthur, Duke of.

See Arthur, Duke of Con-
naught
Constantine, King of Greece

(Duke of Sparta), 392, 393,

395, 420, 471

Constantinople, 145, 153, 155
Constitution of 1850 (Prussia),

Crimean War, 8, 15
Crispi, Francesco, 223
Cronje, General, 465, 466
Cumberland, Ernest, Duke of,

i ; Ernest Augustus, Duke

of, 327, 336, 436
Currie, Sir Donald, 452

Dannewerke, the, 52

Dealtry, Thomas, 67

Decazes, Due, 139

Delbriick, Dr., 351

Denmark, war with Prussia, 50,
liseq.

Denmark, King of. See Chris-
tian DC.

Denmark, Louise, Queen of,
392

Derby, Lord, 17, 149, 158, 159,
161, 165

Devonshire, Duke of, 18

Dilke, Sir Charles, 195, 196,
438

Disraeli, Benjamin. See Bea-
consfield, Lord

Doetz, Dr., 94

Dolgoroukova, Countess (Prin-
cess Yourievsky), 180-81,
182, 184

" Dona ". See Augusta Vic-
toria, Princess

DonhorT, Countess Amelie, 107
Douglas, Count, 405, 407
Dreikaiserbund) the, 129
Dresky, Captain von, 94
DurTerin, Lord, 188, 202
Duncker, Professor, 42, 45
Duvernoy, General Verdy, 413

Edinburgh, 460

Edinburgh, Duke of. See Al-
fred, Prince

Edward VII., King of Great
Britain and Ireland, Em-
peror of India (Albert Ed-
ward, Prince of Wales) :
birth and education of, 2;
visits court of Napoleon EH.,
4 ; question of his marriage,
22 ; Mediterranean tour with
Crown Prince and Princess
of Prussia, 39 ; attitude dur-
ing Danish War (1864), 51,
52, 55; with Queen Vic-
toria at Coburg, 58 ; alleged
sympathy with France against
Prussia, 75, 76, 77, 79 ; re-
conciliation with Crown
Princess, 128, 133 ; dislike
of Bismarck, 128; visit to
Berlin (1874), 133 ; visit to
India, 138; visit to Pots-
dam (1878), 163, 167; visits
Bismarck, 171 ; and Lord
Randolph Churchill, 221,
223 ; at funeral of Emperor
William L, 292 ; and Count
Herbert Bismarck, 317, 335,
336, 337 ; and royal family
of Hanover, 335, 337, 338 ;
and Alsace-Lorraine, 335,
337 ; Vienna visit of (1888),
361 ; avoids meeting Em-
peror William II., 361, 376;
at wedding of Princess Sophie

479

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

in Athens, 393 ; last visits to
Empress Frederick, 468 ; see
also 35, 89, 164, 165, 168, 174,
201,298,359,360,361,424

Egypt, British affairs in, 151-3,
438

Elizabeth, Queen of Prussia,
wife of King Frederick
William IV., 28 *??., 32,
107

Elizabeth, Queen of Roumania
(" Carmen Sylva **), 440, 441,
444, 445

Elliott, Sir Henry, 165

Ernest, Duke of Cumberland,
King of Hanover, i

Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-
Gotha (" Uncle Ernest "), i,
56, 66, 78, 79, 366, 369, 384,

385, 395> 39<*> 39^, 402, 403?

467

Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cum-
berland, 327, 336, 436
Ernst Gunther, Duke of Schles-

wig-HoIstein, 214
Esebeck, General, 83
Eugene, Prince, of Sweden, 207
Eugenie, Empress, 89, 90, 92,

95, 112, 113, 138
Eulenberg, Count, 80, 437
Exhibitions: Hyde Park, of

1851,3; Paris, of 1 889, 373;

of 1900, 466

Failly, General, 91

Falk, Dr., 187

Falkenstein, General von, 102,
103

Favre, Jules, 120

Ferdinand, Prince, of Roumania,
440,444

Ferdinand, Prince, of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha, ruler of Bul-
garia, 212, 218, 223, 420, 441,

453
Francis Joseph, Emperor of

480

Austria, 49, 50, 129, 206, 361,
370

Franco-Prussian War, 70-128,
129

Frankfort, Diet at, n, 14;
peace of, 127

Frederick II., the Great, King
of Prussia, 92

Frederick III., German Em-
peror (Frederick William,
Crown Prince of Prussia and
of Germany) : meets Prin-
cess Royal of England, 3 ;
seeks marriage with Princess
Royal, 5 ; wedding an-
nounced, 7; visit to Eng-
land (1856), 8 ; marriage of,
9 ; birth of heir (Emperor
William II.), 19 ; and war in
Italy (1859), 23 ; elected
Rector of Konigsberg Uni-
versity, 32 ; character of,
36 ; Mediterranean tour with
Prince of Wales, 39 ; breach
with King William L of
Prussia, 40; letters to Bis-
marck on breach of Con-
stitution, 46, 47 ; hostility to
Bismarck, 37, 48, 57, 128;
visit to English court, 49;
and Queen Victoria at Co-
burg (1863), 49; supports
Augustenburg claim to
Schleswig and Holstein, 50 ;
attitude during Danish War
(1864), 52 ; meeting with
Prince of Wales after Danish
War, 55 ; victories during
Seven Weeks* War, 63-4;
command during Franco-
Prussian War, 78 ; victory
at Worth, 83, 85 ; at Weis-
senburg, 83 ; on hospital
activities of Crown Princess,
89 ; views on German unity,
93 ; views on problem of

INDEX

Alsace and Lorraine, 93 ; j
on hospital activities of |
Crown Princess, 94, 97, no ;
created Field-Marshal, 97, 98,
127; and bombardment of
Paris, 101, 102, 106, 107, no ;
favours creation of a German
Empire, 103-6, 343 ; not
dominated by Crown Prin-
cess, 1 08 ; thoughts for future
of Prince William, 118;
visit to London (1871), 128 ;
friendship with Lord Ampt-
hill (Odo Russell), 130 ; visit
to London (1874), X33 , anti-
Russian attitude of, 147 ; on
Russo-Turkish War (1877),
1 54 ; visit to England (1878),
163 ; as Regent, 163, 166 ;
and engagement of Princess
Victoria of Prussia, 201 ; ill-
ness of, 224-85, 307-10, 326,
395, et passim ; Bismarck
stops operation upon, 226;
Sir Morell Mackenzie's at-
tendence on, 231 seq.9 353 ;
difference of opinion of doc-
tors concerning illness of,
234-6, 239 seq.i suggested
treatment in England, 236 ;
visit for Queen Victoria's
Jubilee (1887), 238, 240, 241,
339 ; journey to Tyrol, 243 ;
in Venice, 246; at Baveno,
248 ; at San Remo, 250-85,
287 ; question of operation,
252-5 ; operation performed,
275 ; rumours in Berlin con-
cerning, 276, 277 ; true story
of illness of, 284-5, 3°9 > ac~
cession to throne, 286 ; jour-
ney to Berlin, 287 ; attitude
to Prince Bismarck after ac-
cession, 288-91, 314; visit
of Queen Victoria (1888),
293; death of, 315, 318, 395;

affection for Queen Victoria,
320 ; War Diary of, 339-65,
357; Sir Morell Mackenzie's
book about, 353, 355 ; Bis-
marck's attack on memory of,
357; slanders concerning,
395 ; proposed monument in
Berlin, 417-18; see also 319,
323, 325, 326, 327, 329, 330,
33*, 332, 333, 334, 335, 33<*>
337, 369, 379, 382, 383, 385,
386, 389, 392, 393, 396, 398,
400, 402, 404, 406, 407, 408,
411, 418, 421, 428, 429, 431,
433, 443, 445, 447
Frederick, Empress (Victoria,
Princess Royal of England
and Crown Princess of Ger-
many) : birth of, i, 473 ;
education of, 2 ; meets Prince
Frederick William of Prussia,
3 ; visits court of Napoleon
III., 4, 95 ; hand sought by
Prince Frederick William, 5 ;
confirmation of, 7 ; wedding
announced, 7; marriage of,
9, 1 17, 473 ? leaves for Berlin,
95 personal appearance of,
ii, 39 ; first winter in Berlin,
15 ; love for England, 16, 35,
156, 245, 364; Berlin resid-
ence of, 1 8 ; birth of Prince
William (Emperor William
II.), 19 ; residence at Pots-
dam, 21 ; holiday at Os-
borne, 21 ; birth of Princess
Charlotte, 24; influence of
Prince Consort on, 26, 34 ;
on ministerial responsibility,
26 ; description of death of
King Frederick William IV.,
27 seq. -y visits England on
death of Duchess of Kent,
30 ; and coronation of King
William I., 30 seq. ; twenty-
first birthday of, 34; and

I 481

FREDERICK

Bismarck's appointment, 37 ; j
Mediterranean tour with
Prince of Wales, 39 ; birth |
of Prince Henry, 39 ; on
breach between Crown Prince
and King, 41, 43, 44, 48 ; and
Prince Bismarck (while j
Crown Princess), 48, 56, 64, !

66, 128, 131, 137-9, 147, 191, j
192, 193, 214, 215, 216, 217, !
220, 246, 271, 272, 282 ; visit
to English court, 49; visits
Queen Victoria at Coburg,
49 ; supports Augustenburg
claimant, 50, 51 ; attitude
during Danish War (1864),
^iseq. ; description of Prince |
Christian, 57; foresees war j
with Austria, 59; birth of '
Princess Victoria, 59 ; death
of Prince Sigismund, 60-63,
319, 473 > hospital work dur-
ing Seven Weeks' War, 63 ;
on Crown Prince's part in
War, 64 ; praise of Prussians,
65 ; education of her sons,

67, 68; and physical dis-
ability of Prince William
(Emperor William II.), 68,
69, 120; on Hohenzollern
candidature, 71, 72, 73 ; birth
of Princess Sophie, 72 ; atti-
tude towards war with France,
75 ; anxiety during Franco-
Prussian War, 78, 79 ; appeal
to Queen Victoria for hos-
pital supplies, 79, 8 1, 82;
and christening of Princess
Sophie, 80; on victory at
Worth, 83 ; hospital activi-
ties during Franco-Prussian
War, 84, 85, 89, 91, 94,
96, 97, 109, no, 113, 121,
12.6; on government of
Napoleon HL, 86 ; on French
army, 88 ; on fall of Na-

482

poleon in., 89, 90, 92, 95 ;
views on Alsace-Lorraine

groblem, 91, 109, no; on
ombardment of Strassburg,
92 ; on Prussian superiority,
92 ; on Anglo-German ten-
sion during Franco-Prussian
War, 98, in, 122, 125, 127;
opposed to bombardment of
Paris, 102, 109, 114; slander
concerning her influence over
the Crown Prince, 108 ; in-
cident of Empress Eugenie's
screen, 112-13 ; relations with
Empress Augusta, 116; im-
perial tide of, 119; and future
of Prince William (William
II.), 119; on capitulation of
Paris, 120; on peace terms,
121 ; zenith of career, 126 ;
visit to London (1871), 128 ;
reconciliation with Prince of
Wales, 128 ; visit to London
(1874), 133 ; confirmation of
Prince William (Emperor
William II.), 134; on the East-
ern Question, 141-4, 146, 188
seq*i 203, 205 ; anti-Russian
attitude of, 147; on Euro-
pean policy towards Russia,
148, 150-51; and British
affairs in Egypt, 151-3, 438,
459 ; on Russo-Turkish War
(1877-78), 155; advocates
British intervention, 155-6,
158-60; on Lord Derby's
policy, 162; visit to Eng-
land (1878), 163 ; on Lord
Beaconsfield, 165 ; family life
of, 167-86; on marriage of
Princess Charlotte, 168-70;
on death of Princess Alice,
171-2 ; death of son, Prince
Waldemar, 173, 473; be-
comes a grandmother, 173 ;
and Prince William (Em-

INDEX

peror William II.) before his ;
accession, 174 seq., 179, 183, |
207, 238, 242, 256, 257, 258, i
259, 271,279, 293, 310, 311, I
410, 411; on Nihilists, 178, 1
185 ; on Prince William's j
engagement and marriage,
179, 1 80, 183, 410, 411; on
Czar's morganatic marriage,
181 ; on assassination of
Czar Alexander II., 184;
opinion of Gladstone, 194,

196, 197, 216; on Lord
Rosebery's appointment, 195,
197; on Irish affairs, 196,

197, 198, 438 ; estrangement
between Prince William and,
199, 200, 203, 214, 283 ; and
engagement of Princess Vic-
toria of Prussia, 201, 202,
203 ; views about Prince
Alexander of Battenberg, 204,
208 ; on decline of British
influence in Europe, 209 ;
conversation with Crown
Prince Rudolph of Austria,
210-12 ; on Bulgarian affairs
(1887-88), 212 seq.9 216, 217,
218, 220, 223 ; and Lord
Randolph Churchill's visit
to Russia (1888), 222; on
British interests in India, 222 ;
and summons to Dr. Morell
Mackenzie, 227-30, 282 ; and
operation on Crown Prince,
231, 232, 233, 331, 3335
slanders concerning Crown
Prince's illness, 234, 282,
283, 285 ; presence at Queen
Victoria's Jubilee (1887), 241;
journey to Tyrol, 243 ; in
Venice, 246 ; at Baveno, 248 ;
at San Remo, 250-85 ; and
death of Emperor William I.,
280, 286; becomes German
Empress, 286; returns to

Berlin, 287; relations with
Prince Bismarck (after ac-
cession to throne), 292, 293,
3I3> 314; visit of Queen
Victoria (1888), 293, 305 ;
tribute to devotion of, 299 ;
death of her husband, 315,
316, 317, 319, 471,473; and
Emperor William II. after
his accession to throne, 318,
321, 328, 345, 35*3 352, 355,
356, 360, 361, 364, 415, 416,
420, 455, 472, 473; and
Prince Bismarck after death
of her husband, 318, 325, 33 2,
338> 353, 358; and Fried-
richskron, 319, 321 ; tribute
to her husband, 319-21, 330 ;
and Emperor Frederick's War
Diary, 347, 349, 350; on
Emperor William II.'s jour-
neys, 347-8 ; estimate of Em-
peror William II., 352, 360,
361, 362, 363, 369, 372, 381,
405, 407, 409, 411, 412, 421,
427, 428, 429, 430, 432, 434,
449, 450; and Sir Morell
Mackenzie's book, 353 ; visit
to England (1888), 364 ; hos-
tility to memoirs of Duke
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, 366,
367; and visit of Emperor
William IL to England (1889),
367; references to death of
Archduke Rudolf of Austria,
370; on colonial policy of
Germany, 373, 446-7 ; causes
of aggravation of breach be-
tween Emperor William IL
and, 374, 375 ; memories of
Emperor Frederick, 378 ; in-
fluence of Q.ueen Victoria
over, 379 ; opinion of Count
von Waldersee, 391 ; on
prospect of Prince Bismarck's
retirement or death, 391, 412 ;

483

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

at marriage of Princess
Sophie, 393 ; on death of
Empress Augusta, 399 ; re-
fused headship of Red Cross
societies, 400; on proposed
Labour Conference (1890),
405, 406, 408, 457; on Bis-
marck's protectionist policy,
406 ; on Empress William
31, 410, 421 ; effect of Bis-
marck's fall on position of,
414, 415 ; retirement to
house at Cronberg, 415, 416 ;
and proposed monument to
husband in Berlin, 417, 418 ;
silence on foreign policy
(1888—90), 419 ; comments
on birth of Emperor William
II/s fourth son, 421-2; re-
semblance to Queen Victoria,
422 ; semi-official visit to
Paris (1891), 422-5 ; visit to
England (1891), 424 ; opinion
of La Marseillaise, 425-6 ;
changed attitude to Bismarck
after his fall, 426, 442-4, 448 ;
on Emperor William II. 's
Erfurt speech, 427 ; on efforts
to reconcile Emperor William
n. and Bismarck, 430-32, 436;
on riots in Germany (1892),
433 ; on Emperor William
n.'s visit to Italy (1893), 440-
441 ; visit to Sophie, Crown
Princess of Greece, 441 ; on
affairs in Germany (1893),
442-4; on Queen Elizabeth
of Roumania, 445 ; on Bis-
marck and German colonial
policy, 446-7; on Emperor
William II.'s naval policy,
447; on General von Cap-
rivi, 449 5 on Prince von
Hohenlohe, 449, 450, 452-3 ;
on rumour of Mr. Gladstone's
visit to Bismarck, 452; on
484

Bulgarian affairs (1895), 453-
454; on Anglo-German re-
lations (1897), 455 ; on Rus-
sian proposals for conference
on disarmament, 456; on
Nicholas II., Emperor of
Russia, 457-8; accident to,
458,459; illness of, 458, 463,
465, 467 ; last visit to Eng-
land (1898), 459 ; on Egyp-
tian War (1898), 459; on
Queen Victoria's eightieth
birthday, 461 ; interest in
South African War, 461-7 ;
on Emperor William IL's
" Kruger telegram ", 462 ;
visits British battleship, 465 ;
on President Kruger, 467 ;
last visits of Prince of Wales
to, 468 ; and death of Queen
Victoria, 468 ; death of, 468 ;
character of, 469-74 ; Em-
peror William II.'s descrip-
tion of, 469 ; causes of her
unpopularity, 469-71 ; Lib-
eral principles of, 470 ; sur-
vey of her career, 473-4;
letters to Queen Victoria,
passim

Frederick VEL, King of Den-
mark, 50

Frederick, Duke of Schleswig-
Holstein-Sonderburg-Augus-
tenburg (Fritz Augusten-
burg), 50, 51, 57, 177, 388, 396

Frederick, Grand Duke of
Baden, 351, 390

Frederick, Prince, of Denmark,
afterwards King Frederick
VIII., 392

Frederick, Prince, of the Nether-
lands, 32

Frederick Augustus, Prince (of
Oldenburg), 167

Frederick Charles, Prince, of
Prussia (" the Red Prince "),

INDEX

78,97,98, 100,109, I][5> JI7,
167, 171, 335-6

Frederick Charles, Princess, of
Hesse (Margaret, daughter
of Empress Frederick), 468

Frederick William, Crown
Prince of Prussia. See Fred-
erick III., German Emperor

Frederick William III., King of
Prussia, 127

Frederick William IV., King of
Prussia, 4, 5, 13, 16, 18, 19,

27, 43 *

Freiligrath, Ferdinand, 82, 86
Freytag, Gustav, 43, 395
Friedberg, 372
" Friedrichshof ", Empress

Frederick's residence, 416
Friedrichskron, or Neue Palais,

312,322,385
Fritz, Prince, of Baden, 323, 326

Gambetta, Leon, 97, 101, 121
Geffcken, Professor H., 343,

348, 349, 35°, 35*, 356, 367,
385, 388, 389, 396, 445, 473

Geissel, Cardinal, 32

Genoa, Duke of, 72

George I., King of Greece, 419,
421

George, Duke of Cambridge
(" Uncle George **), 66, 273

George, Prince, of Greece,
392

George V., King of Hanover,
50, 56, 66, 67

Gerhardt, Professor, 224, 226,
230, 231, 232, 233, 235, 236,
237, 238, 240, 255, 264, 310,
3n, 3^7, 33i, 332, 333, 334,
359> 379, 382, 385

Gerlach, General von, 10

Germany, political condition in
1858, 14

Giers, M. de? Russian Chan-
cellor, 205, 222

Gladstone, William Ewart, 76,
125, 140, 155, 165, 188, 189,
192, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198,

43°,437,438,45i-2
Glencoe, battle of, 462
Gloucester, Duchess of, i
Goltz, Marie, 83, 88
Gordon- dimming, R. G., 414
Gortchakoff, Prince, 151, 165,

205

Goschen, Viscount, 189, 197
Gramont, Due de, 72, 86, 87, 90
Granville, Lord, 17, 72, 82, 85,

100, 113, 127, 130, 188, 193
Gregory, Sir Wm., 273
Grey, General, 42, 43

Hague, The, arbitration court

at, 458

Hahn, Dr., 334
Hamilton, Duchess of, 98
Hanover, 13 ; part in Seven

Weeks' War, 65, 67
Hardenberg, Karl August von,

Prince, 92

Harmening, Dr., 398
Harrington, Lord, 196, 197, 273
Hatzfeldt (-Wildenburg), Count

Paul von, 295, 387, 389, 390,

3925 393? 412, 425, 448
Hatzfeldt, Helene, Princess Max

of Hohenlohe, 387, 393
Helena, Princess (afterwards

Princess Christian), daughter

of Queen Victoria, 57, 63,

177, 327
Henry, Prince, of Battenberg,

201, 293, 297, 299
Henry, Prince, of Prussia, son

of Empress Frederick, 39, 68,

135, 261, 263, 266, 275, 311,

333, 435
Henry, Princess, of Battenberg

(Princess Beatrice), 201, 202,

293, 297, 299
Hesse, Prince Charles of, 32

485

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Hesse-Cassel, part in Seven

Weeks' War, 65
Hesse-Darmstadt, Grand Duch-
ess of. See Alice, Princess
Hesse-Darmstadt, Louis, Grand

Duke of, 56, 98, 171, 173.

275, 276, 436
Heyden, Geheimrath von, 405,

407
Hintzpeter, Dr., 133, 136, 383,

405, 407
Hohenlohe, Prince Chlodwig

von, 317, 412, 449, 450,

452
Hohenlohe-Oehringen, Prince

Max von, 387
Hohenthal, Lothar von, 92
Hohenthal, Walburga, Countess

von (Walburga, Lady Paget),

II, 22

Hohenzollern candidature, 71
seq.

Hohenzollern - Sigmaringen :
Prince of, see Anthony , Prince,
and Leopold, Prince ; Prin-
cess of, see Antoinette, Prin-
cess

Home Rule for Ireland, 196,

437, 438

Hovell, Dr. Mark, 242, 243, 249,
251, 253, 262, 263, 264, 269,
272, 275, 285, 308, 309, 310,
312, 326, 332, 339, 340, 341

Humbert, King of Italy, 419,
440

Hyde Park Exhibition (1851), 3

Ignatieff, General, 148, 151

Ihne, Herr, 416

India, British interests in, 222,

438

Irene, Princess, of Hesse, 311
Isabella, Queen of Spain, 70, 92

Jasmund, Herr von, 87
Jenner, Sir W., 206, 231, 265

486

Joinville, Prince de, 91
Joubert, General, 466
Jubilee, Queen Victoria's (1887),
238, 242

Kalnoki, Count, 211
Karolyi, Count, 187, 211
Kaulbars, General, 207, 208, 214
Keller, Herr von, 452
Kent, Duchess of, i, 30
Kessel, G. von, 363, 379, 384,

385, 390
Khartoum, 459
Kirchbach, General, in
Kitchener, Lord, 460, 466
Koch, General Arzt, 94
Koniggratz (Sadowa), battle of,

64,65

Konigsberg, 30, 121
Krause, Dr., 251, 252, 254, 262,

263, 264, 269, 275, 307, 326
Kruger, President, 467
" Kruger telegram ", 462-3
Kuper, Admiral, 53
Kiissmaul, Professor, 277, 278

Labouchere, Henry D., 220

Labour Conference (1890), 405

Ladysmith, 463, 464, 465, 466

Laforgue, Jules, 15 n.

Landgraf, Dr., 241, 327, 333

Langenbeck, Dr., 68, 87, 334

Laon, 94

Lauer, Dr., 226, 232

Lavalaye, M. de, 406

Layard, Sir Austen Henry, 149,
150, 273

Lebceuf, Edmond, 86, 87

Lenthold, Dr., 255

Leopold L, King of the Belgians,
*> 3, <$, % I9> 20, 52, 58, 104

Leopold II., King of the Bel-
gians, 170

Leopold, Prince, Duke of Al-
bany, son of Queen Victoria,
268, 269

INDEX

Leopold, Prince, of Hohenzol-
lern-Sigmaringen, 71, 72, 73
Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole, 406
Lobanoff, Prince, 207, 454
Loe, General W. von, 240, 371,

385, 389
Loftus, Lord Augustus, 100,

127, 129, 130, 159
Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse-
Darmstadt (husband of Prin-
cess Alice), 56, 98, 171, 173,
275, 276, 436

Louis, Prince, of Baden, 326
Louis, Prince, of Battenberg, 201
Louise, Princess, of Baden, 326,

351, 400
Louise, Princess (of England),

Duchess of Argyll, 126
Louise, Princess (of Prussia),
sister of Emperor Frederick

ni.,3

Louise Margaret, Princess, of
Prussia, Duchess of Con-
naught, 171, 173
Ludwig, Emil, 174 «., 176 ».,
203 «., 228, 282, 283, 285, 318
Ludwig II., King of Bavaria,

104, 105, no, 115
Luitpold, Prince (of Bavaria), 32
Luiz, King of Portugal, 202
Lyncker,Herrvon, 363, 390,397
Lyttelton, Sarah, Lady, 9, 24

Mackenzie, Dr. (later Sir) Mor-
ell, 227-43, 246-52, 254-60,
262-6, 269-70, 272, 274-9,
282, 284-7, 3°7~9> 3I2> 314,
326, 330-32, 335, 341, 342,

35i> 353? 355>379> 3^5*3^
MacMahon, Marshal, 83, 86, 89
Mafeking, 466
Malet, Sir Edward, 193, 228,

295, 297, 300, 301, 302, 323

324,340,362,389,435
Mallet, Sir Louis, 406, 407
Malmesbury, Lord, 17

Malmo, Truce of, 14

Manchester, Duchess of, 1 8

vlanning, Cardinal, 406

ManteuSel, Marshal, 144

Vlargaret, Princess (Princess
Frederick Charles of Hesse),
daughter of Empress Fred-
erick, 331, 423

Marie, Empress of Russia, 178,
1 80, 1 86

Marie, Grand Duchess, of
Russia, Duchess of Edin-
burgh, 178, 180, 185, 440

Marie, Queen of the Belgians, 170

Marseillaise, La, 425-6

Martin, Sir Theodore, 86, 341,

Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, i
" May Laws ", in Prussia, 187
Mecklenburg, 13
Mecklenburg, Grand Dukes of,

67
Mecklenburg - Strelitz, Grand

Duchess of, 22
Methuen, Lord, 466
Metz, 86, 88, 91, 92, 97, 121
Milan, King of Serbia, 441
Milne, Sir Alexander, 456
Mischke, General, 385
Moltke, Count von, 78, 93, 101,

102, 107, 121, 383
Montpensier, Duchess of, 267,

268

"Moretta." See under Char-
lotte, Princess, of Saxe-Mein-
ingen

Morier, Sir Robert, 22, 23, 49,
74, 142, 193, 206, 222, 223,
386,389,392
Morley, John, 195, 196
Motley, John Lothrop, 39
Moulton, Charles, 387
Munster, Count, 159, 163, 363,

424

Murad, Sultan, 145
MuraviefT, Count, 456, 457

487

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Nacliod, battle of, 63

Napier, Lord, 159

Napoleon L, Emperor of the

French, 121, 157, 445
Napoleon EL, Emperor of the

French, 4, 70, 72, 73, 74, 86,

8p, 9°> 9*> 95> 96> **6
National Gallery, London, 425
Natzmer, Major von, 318
Navy, German, 447, 456
Nicholas L, Tsar of Russia, 53
Nicholas IL, Tsar of Russia,

393, 457, 458
Nicholas, Grand Duke, 32

O'Danne, Lieutenant, 83
Oldenburg, Grand Duke of, 66,

167
Ollivier, Olivier Emile, 72, 86,

Omdurman, battle of, 458
Orleans, surrender of, 109
Osborne, Bernal, 53
Osman Pasha, 153, 154, 155

Paget, Sir Augustus, 11, 211
Palikao, General, 91
Palmerston, Lord, 6, 52, 53
Paris, siege and bombardment

of, 95, 100, 101-3, 106, 107,

115, 120

Paris, Treaty of (1856), 130
Paris Exhibitions (1889), 373 ;

(1900), 466
Parnell, Charles Stewart, 196,

198

Perglas, Baron, 87
Perpignan, Mile, de, 268, 394
Phipps, the Hon. Harriet, 293
Pius DC., Pope, 137, 149
Ponsonby, Lady, 192, 194, 203,

204, 243, 247, 265, 269, 270,

272, 274, 279, 327, 374
Ponsonby, Sir Henry, 253, 265,

269, 293, 294, 296, 297, 298,

301, 304, 324, 364, 380

488

Pretoria, 465, 466

Prim, Marshal, 70, 71

Prince Consort. See Albert,

Prince Consort
Prince Imperial, 90
Prince of Wales. See Edward

yn.

Princess Royal. See Frederick,

Empress
Prussia, position in 1858, 13 ;

character of court of, 15, 1 6
Puttkamer, Prussian Minister of

the Interior, 312, 313, 314,

382, 383, 385

Radolin - Radolinsky, Count,
192, 193, 243, 244, 247, 250,
272, 274, 275, 276, 309, 372,
382, 388

RadoslavofF, Bulgarian premier,
207

Rasputin, 471

" Red Prince, the ". See Fred-
erick Charles, Prince, of
Prussia

Redigher, Colonel, 202

Regent of Prussia. See William
L, King of Prussia and Ger-
man Emperor

Regnault, Henri, 423-4

Reid, Sir James, 228, 248, 272

Reischach, Baron von, 355, 441,

455

Reiss, Mr., 41 5
Renvers, Professor, 465
Reuss, Prince, 370
Rhodes, Cecil, 462
Richelieu, 445
Rilesef, General, 181
Roberts, Lord, 465, 466
Rodd, Sir Rennell, 226 n.} 228,

229, 230, 429 n.
Roder, General von, 385
Roggenbach, Baron von, 239,

244, 265, 267, 356, 367, 385,

388, 389, 445, 473

INDEX

Roon, A. T. E., Count von, 78,

101
Rosebery, Lord, 195, 196, 206,

392, 437, 438, 448, 459, 4<5o
Roumania, Prince Charles of

(King Carol L), 1 57? 373
Rudolph, Archduke, Crown

Prince of Austria, 210, 367,

370, 373

Russell, Lady Emily, 131
Russell, Lord, 42, 52, 53
Russell, Lord Arthur, 193
Russell, Odo (afterwards Lord

Ampthill), 129, 130, 131, 144,

149, 183, 193, 273
Rutland, Duke of, 304, 306

Saarbriick, bombardment of, 82,
84

Sadowa (Koniggratz), battle of,
64,65

Sadullah Bey, 160

Salisbury, Lord, 145, 147, 151*
161, 163, 165, 187, 188, 196,
197, 198, 206, 210, 275, 295,
300, 302, 306, 359, 392, 393,

454

San Stefano, Treaty of, 161
Saxe - Coburg - Gotha, Alfred,
Duke of, see Alfred, Prince ;
Ernest, Duke of, see Ernest,
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha;
Ferdinand, Prince of, see
Ferdinand, Prince, of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha

Saxe - Meiningen, Bernard,
Prince of, 167, 170, 357, 383>

390,435 n wr , ,

Jaxony, part in Seven weeks

War, 65

laxony, Crown Prince of, 32
iaxony, King of, 326
icharTgotsch, Count, 132
Ichillbach, Professor, 94, no
ichleswig and Holstein, 14, 50,

67, 169

Schmidt, Dr. Moritz, 252, 255,

256,257,310

Schnabele, M., French Com-
missary, 217, 218
Schrader, Dr., 226, 232, 243,

275, 342

Schroder, Dr., 94, 277, 278
Schrotter, Professor von, 251,

252,254,255,351
Schulenburg, Countess, 31
SchuvalofF, Count, 159, 165
Schweinitz, General, 84, 181,

182, 446, 448

Schweinschadel, battle of, 63
Seckendorff, Count von, 78,
80, 192, 193, 243, 244, 265,

354

Sedan, battle of, 89, 95
Sedlnitsky, Countess Perpon-

cher, 354

Semon, Dr. Henry, 227
Semon, Sir Felix, 227
SenfF, Major, 83
Servia, Milan, King of, 441
Seven Weeks' War, 60-67
Shakespeare, 91
Sigismund, Prince (of Prussia),

son of Empress Frederick,

60-63,79,473

Simmons, Sir J. Lintorn, 189
Skalicz, battle of, 63
Socialist Law of 1873, 403
Solferino, battle of, 24
Sonderburg, bombardment of,

Sophie, Princess, Duchess of
Sparta (later Queen of
Greece), third daughter of
Empress Frederick, 72, 79,

8o> 33 !> 393, 395, 4*o, 468,

471

Soudan, war in, 458
South African War, 458, 461
Spain, affairs in 1870, 70
Sparta, Duke of. See Constan-

tine, King of Greece

489

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Spencer, Lord, 55, 196
Spithead, German fleet at (i 889),

383
Stambouloff, Bulgarian Prime

Minister, 453
Steibel, Dr., 415
Stein, Heinrich F. K., Baron

von, 92
Stephanie, Princess, of Belgium,

210

Stockmar, Baron, 2, 4, 23, 104
Stockmar, Ernest von, 23, 35
Stockmar, Frau von, 319, 356
Stosch, General von, 386, 389
Strachey, Sir G., 304
Strassburg, 92, 96
Straus, Hof Prediger, 21
Suez Canal shares, 151, 153
Sultans of Turkey : Abdul

Hamid, 145, 147; Murad,

145
Swaine, Colonel Leopold, 193,

253, 298, 300, 324, 364
Symons, Sir William, 462
Szechenyi, Count, Austrian

Ambassador, 371

Thiers, Louis Adolphe, 101
Times, Tke9 attacks on Prussia,

25, 53, 138, 433
Tisza, Kalman, 207
Tobold, Professor, 226, 232,

236, 255, 264
Trautmann, Dr., 200
Treitschke, H. G. von, 382
Triple Alliance, 129
Trochu, General, 97
Tsars of Russia. See Nicholas

I.5 Alexander II., Alexander

III, and Nicholas II.

Vacaresco, Mile., 440

Verne, Jules, 413

Victor Emmanuel II., King of

Italy, 151
Victoria, Princess, of Hesse,

49°

daughter of Princess Alice,
201

Victoria, Princess, of Prussia,
second daughter of Empress
Frederick, 59, 65, 80, 199,
201, 268, 294, 296, 273, 297,
298, 299, 301, 303, 321, 331

Victoria, Princess, of Schleswig-
Holstein, 212

Victoria, Princess, of Wales,
daughter of King Edward

vn., 394

Victoria, Princess Royal of
England. See Frederick, Em-
press

Victoria, Queen of Great Britain
and Ireland, Empress of
India : mother of Empress
Frederick, i ; entertains
Prince Frederick William of
Prussia during Great Ex-
hibition, 3 ; visits Emperor
Napoleon III., 4; consents
to engagement of Princess
Royal, 5, 6 ; chaperons Prin-
cess Royal, 8 ; opposes mar-
riage in Berlin, 8; on depart-
ure of Princess Frederick for
Berlin, 9; character of her
court, 14; visits Princess
Frederick at Babelsberg, 17 ;
early attitude to Prince
William (Emperor William
IL), 24, 122 ; at Coburg, 24,
49, 58 ; attitude to Schleswig-
Holstein problem, 51 ; neu-
tral attitude during Danish
War (1864), 52, 54 ; and Bis-
marck (1865), 5<> ; and Prince
Christian of Schleswig-HoI-
stein, 57 • engagement of
Princess Helena, 58 ; en-
deavours to avert war be-
tween Prussia and Austria,
59 ; advice on Hohenzollern
candidature, 71, 72 ; sym-

INDEX

pathies during Franco-Prus-
sian War, 75, 77 ; and Crown
Princess's appeal for hospital
supplies, 793 81, 82 ; and
Albert Memorial, 109 ; diffi-
culty over Empress Eugenie's
screen, 112-13; speech from
the throne (1871), 122; on
duties of princes towards
their subjects, 123 ; accusa-
tions of breach of neutrality
during Franco-Prussian War,
125 ; visit of Crown Prince
and Princess Frederick (1871),
128 ; reconciles Crown Prin-
cess Frederick and Prince
of Wales, 128; efforts for
European peace, 136, 139 ;
opinion of Bismarck, 139-
140, 142, 296, 300 -, on sug-

f2Sted British occupation of
gypt, 152-3 ; confers Order
of the Garter on Prince
William (Emperor William
IL)> 174-5 ; on Prussian alli-
ance with Austria, 187; and
engagement of Princess Vic-
toria of Prussia, 201 ; letter
to Prince Alexander of Bat-
tenberg, 209 ; and illness of
Crown Prince Frederick, 285,
333 ; visit to Emperor and
Empress Frederick (1888),
293 ; and Crown Prince
William (Emperor William
110,296,297,302,303,304;
and betrothal of Princess
Victoria of Prussia, 297, 300.
302 ; relations with Prince
Bismarck (1888), 301, 302
303, 304 ; German visii
(1888), 301-4, 305, 306; affec-
tion of Emperor Frederick
III. for, 320; and Empero:
William II., 323, 324; en
deavours to reconcile Prince

of Wales, Emperor William
II. and Empress Frederick,
361 ; invites Emperor William
II. to England, 366; influ-
ence over Empress Fred-
erick, 379 ; as Colonel of
German Dragoons, 384 ;
efforts at reconciliation, 384 ;
and proposed monument to
Emperor Frederick III. in
Berlin, 417; invites Empress
Frederick to England (1890),
417 ; visit of Empress Fred-
erick to (1898), 45 9; eightieth
birthday of, 461 ; death of,
468 ; letters from Empress
Frederick to, passim ; see also
*5, 33, 42, 52, 60, 86, 108,
178, 196, 202, 222, 292, 295,

Tr 323, 333, 374, 4io
Villafranca, Peace of, 24
Virchow, Professor R. von, 232,

233, 235, 236, 241, 274, 276,

279,280,284,326
Voltaire, 178

Wagner, Richard, 414
Walburga, Lady Paget. See

Hohenthal,Walburga, Count-
ess von

Waldeger, Professor, 279, 280
Waldemar, Prince, fourth son

of Empress Frederick, 173,

215, 351,473
Waldemar, Prince, of Denmark,

190
Waldersee, General Count von,

3<>4> 3<S5> 383* 39°> 39i>

453
Wales, Albert Edward, Prince

of. See Edward VII., King
Wales, Alexandra, Princess of.

See Alexandra, Queen
Wegner, Surgeon-General, 224,

230, 232, 233, 236, 239, 241,

307,310,311,331,342

491

LETTERS OF EMPRESS FREDERICK

Weimar, Grand Duchess of, 32
Weimar, Grand Duke of, 32
Weissenburg, German success

at, 83

Wellington, Duke of, i
Werder, General von, 117, 146,

181

Westminster, Duke of, 197
White, Sir George, 464
White, Sir William, 213, 221
William I., King of Prussia and
German Emperor, 3, 15, 30,
33, 3<S, 49, 51, 59,71,74,78,
88, 95, 96, 97, 103, 104, 109-

IIO, III, 115, 119, 120, 129,

I35, *3<>, J37, 158, i<$3, l65,
168, 176, 182, 234, 238, 249,
253, 254, 256, 261, 274, 279,
280, 281, 286, 299, 314, 359,
362, 363, 368, 385, 418, 419

William II., German f Emperor
(Prince William of Prussia
and Crown Prince) : birth
of, 19 ; physical disability of,
19, 68, 69, 120, 282 ; christen-
ing of, 21 ; early attitude of
Queen Victoria to, 24, 122 ;
education of, 68 ; parental
cares for, 118, 119 ; character
as a boy, 133, 168, 175 ; con-
firmation of, 134-6 ; influence
of Emperor William I. on,
135 ; and Empress Frederick
(before his accession to
throne), 174 seq., 179, 183,
207, 238, 242, 256, 257, 258,
259, 271, 279, 293, 310, 311,
410, 411 ; comes of age, 174 ;
receives Order of the Garter,
174 ; character in early man-
hood, 175-6, 207 ; his opinion
of his father, 176 • secret en-
gagement o£ 176 seq. i visit
to England*: (.1880), 182;
marriage of, *i8^, 410, 411 ;
estrangement between Crown

492

Princess Frederick and, 199,
200, 203, 214, 283 ; presence
at Gastein Conference, 206 ;
question of presence at Queen
Victoria's Jubilee, 238 ; in-
fluence in Berlin, 245 ; visits
father and mother at Baveno,
249 ; at San Remo, 253, 256 ;
prospect of his accession, 253,
293 ; attitude to his mother,
256, 279, 325 ; and operation
on Crown Prince, 257, 333 ;
imperial authority delegated
to, 261, 262 ; activities dur-
ing father's reign, 293, 296,

297, 3OI> 310, 3*3; and
Queen Victoria, 296, 297,
302, 303, 304, 323, 324; and
Dr. Bergmann, 309, 310 ; un-
filial attitude after death of
Emperor Frederick III., 317,
318, 321, 322, 351 ; and Em-
press Frederick (after his ac-
cession to throne), 318, 321,
327, 328, 345, 351, 352, 354,

355, 35<>, 36°, 361, 3<>4, 4i5,
416, 420, 455, 472, 473;
policy on accession, 322, 326,
329 ; references to Prince of
Wales (King Edward VII.),
335, 33<>, 337; and Emperor
Frederick's War Diary, 343,
345, 34^ ; journeys of, 347 ;
Empress Frederick's opinion
of, 352, 360, 361, 362, 363,
381, 407, 409, 4io, 411, 412,
421, 427, 428, 430, 432, 434,
449, 450 ; influence of Prince
Bismarck on, 358, 359, 360,
404 ; Prince of Wales (King
Edward VIE.) avoids meet-
ing, 360 n. i visit to England
(1889), 366-86; attitude of
Prince Bismarck to, 372;
breach with Prince Bismarck,
376, 387, 437; and West-

INDEX

phalian miners, 376, 377 ; in-
fluence of Count von Wal-
dersee on, 383 ; state visit to
England (1889), 383-4 ; fails
to deny Freytag's slanders,
396; refuses Empress Fred-
erick headship of Red Cross
societies, 400, 401 ; conflict
with Prince Bismarck over
Socialist Law, 403 ; proposes
Labour Conference, 405, 406;
forbids monument to Em-
peror Frederick III., 417 ;
and Sophie, Duchess of
Sparta, 420, 421 ; birth of
fourth son, 421 ; and Em-
press Frederick's Paris visit
(1891), 422 ; Erfurt speech of
(September 1891), 427; pro-
vocative acts and speeches of,
428, 429, 432, 433, 45°3 462-3,
467 ; rapprochement between
Bismarck and, 429, 430-32,
436, 446, 451 ; attends silver
wedding of King and Queen
of Italy, 440; colonial policy

of, 446-7 ; and German navy,
447 ; presents Bismarck with
sword of honour, 45 1 ; and
the " Kruger telegram ", 462 ;
and last days of Empress
Frederick, 468 ; description
of Empress Frederick, 469
William, Prince, of Denmark
(King George I. of the
Hellenes), 419
Williams, Montague, 334
Winter, Burgomaster von, 40, 41
Winterfeldt, General von, 264,

P3> 324, 379, 3^2
Worth, German victory at, 83
Wrangel, Field-Marshal, 17, 19,

52
Wurtemberg, Crown Prince of,

32
Wurtemberg, King of, 78

Yourievsky, Princess, 180-82,
184

Zedlitz, Count, 436
Zollverein, 13

Printed i?* Great Britain fa R«

^nmT^

A SELECTION OF NEW BOOKS

EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS HARDY, 1840-1891.
Compiled largely from contemporary notes, letters, diaries,
and biographical memoranda, as well as from oral informa-
tion in conversations extending over many years. By
FLORENCE EMILY HARDY. With portraits and other
illustrations. 8vo. i8s. net.

MR. HARDY'S LAST POEMS — WINTER
WORDS. In Various Moods and Metres. By THOMAS
HARDY, O.M. Crown 8vo. 73. 6d. net.

FRANCIS JOSEPH OF AUSTRIA. A Biography.
By Prof. JOSEPH REDLICH, formerly a Member of the
Austrian Parliament, and Austrian Minister of Finance in
1918. With illustrations. 8vo.

AFTER THIRTY YEARS, (Personal Memoirs of

W. E, Gladstone.) By the Right Hon. the Viscount

GLADSTONE, P.C., G.C.M.G. With portraits and other
illustrations. 8vo.

LIFE AND WORK OF SIR NORMAN
LOCKYER. By T. MARY LOCKYER and WINIFRED L.
LOCKYER, with the assistance of Professor H. DINGLE;
and Contributions by CHARLES E. ST. JOHN, MEGH
NAD SAHA, Sir NAPIER SHAW, F.R.S., Professor H. N.
RUSSELL, Rev. J. GRIFFITH, Sir RICHARD GREGORY, and
Professor A. FOWLER, F.R.S. With photogravure frontis-
piece and other portraits and illustrations. 8vo. i8s. net.

HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR. Based on
Official Documents, by direction of the Historical Section
of the Committee of Imperial Defence.

Vol. IV. Military Operations, France and Belgium,
1915 : Battles of Aubers Ridge, Festubert, and Loos.
Compiled by Brigadier-General Sir JAMES EDMONDS,
C.B., C.M.G., R.E. (Retired), f.s.c. Maps and Sketches
compiled by Major A. F. BECKE, R.A. (Retired), Hon.
M.A. (Oxon.) 8vo. 128. 6d. net. Separate case of
maps. 55. 6d. net.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.

KING EDWARD VII. A Biography. By Sir
SIDNEY LEE. 2 vols. Medium 8vo.

Vol. I. From Birth to Accession — pth
November 1841 to 22nd January 1901. With 6
portraits in photogravure, 2 facsimile letters, and
3 maps. 315. 6d. net

Vol. II. The Reign — 22nd January 1901 to
6th May 1910. With 6 photogravure plates.
315. 6d. net.

The two vols., bound in Half Morocco and
enclosed in Cloth Case, £4 : 43. net

"The blemishes of this biography are as nothing compared
with merits which make its perusal and possession absolutely
indispensable to any serious student of public affairs. . . .
This book gives us the real King Edward VII. It will doubt-
less be supplemented later by other pens, but it is ... the
authentic story of the reign of one of the greatest and most
popular kings in the annals of this realm." — The Daily
Telegraph.

"The history of yesterday is a fascinating subject; and
this book is an important addition to it. ... An examination
reveals a great mass of highly interesting information, arranged
with the skill and clarity for which Sir Sidney was famous." —
Mr. LYTTON STRACHEY in The Daily Mail.

" Sir Sidney Lee has written what is virtually a history of
our own times grouped round a chief protagonist. ... He
has succeeded in presenting a convincing portrait of a vital,
shrewd, warm-hearted, and most lovable personality, and so
explaining his unique influence and his signal popularity." —
Mr. JOHN BUCHAN in The British Weekly.

" The picture is true and lifelike, largely conceived, skilfully
composed, and executed with care." — The Times.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Letters Of The Empress Frederick"

See other formats