Queen Alexandra

“ But we of the twentieth century live in an age of æsthetic revival, and, though perhaps we do not mourn so heartily, we certainly mourn more prettily. One lady at least there is who knows how to combine the sincerity of sorrow with its becoming manifestation; and Queen Alexandra in mourning garb is as delightful a vision as was Queen Alexandra in her clothing of wrought gold, when she knelt before the altar of Westminster Abbey and bowed her head to receive her diamond crown. ”

“ They need not have feared. Everyone who met Alexandra loved her, for this bright, cheerful young girl carried sunshine wherever she went, and it shone upon even the lonely heart of the sorrowful Queen.
There had been a great deal of discussion about who would be the bride of the Prince of Wales, and not a little scheming among no lesser people than some of the great dignitaries of Europe; for there were several young princesses whose parents would have been glad to form an alliance with the heir of England's crown. ”

“ A valuable collection of original drawings for illustrated periodicals, depicting scenes in his majesty's reign, is in possession of Queen Alexandra.
King Edward was a good and willing sitter, but a difficult subject. Hardly any portrait gives a satisfactory idea of a personality in which so much depended upon the vivacity of the likeness. One of the best likenesses is considered to be that in the group of the Prince of Wales and the duke of Connaught at Aldershot, painted by Edouard Detaille, and presented to Queen Victoria by the royal family at the Diamond Jubilee in 1897. ”

“ Before them were stately, robed officials, such as Lord Salisbury and the Duke of Devonshire and some of the brilliant colours of the Court. The King wore a short ermine cape over his Field Marshal's uniform, and beneath the cape a sweeping cloak and train of Royal purple. Queen Alexandra, beautiful always, was more than usually sweet and dignified in her garb of mingled black and purple. In the House of Lords the evidences of mourning for the late Queen were very apparent. The ladies were dressed in black though they were permitted to blaze with jewels. ”

“ It is a canon of Court etiquette that imperial personages take precedence of royal personages, and consequently it was held in Russia that the Duchess of Edinburgh, being the daughter of the Emperor of Russia, should take precedence of the Princess of Wales, who was merely the daughter of a king. Queen Alexandra is so amiable that I believe that she would have contentedly allowed the duchess and anybody else who wanted to do so to pass before her; but obviously the wife of the heir to the throne could not be permitted to take any place but the first after the Sovereign. ”

“ The Freemasons of Great Britain presented Queen Alexandra with a very splendid diamond butterfly. The members of the Body-Guard were represented by a silver statue of a member of the corps, arrayed in the uniform originally designed by the Prince Consort. The Comte de Paris sent a large agate punch-bowl, studded with precious stones. Among the public gifts which afforded the King and Queen most pleasure was the Colonial Silver Wedding gift—a silver candelabrum adapted for electric light, and a fine twenty-one day movement clock to match. ”

“ Sandringham with Queen Alexandra, while the King went to Russia in order to be present at the marriage of his sister-in-law, Princess Dagmar, to the then Cesarewitch. It was quite late in the year, and it was considered that the cold in St. Petersburg would be too severe for Queen Alexandra to accompany her husband. The King, who attended the Imperial marriage in his official capacity, was accompanied by a considerable suite, including Lord Frederick Paulet, Viscount Hamilton, the Marquis of Blandford, and Major Teesdale. ”

“ The child was christened on 29th June in the Chapel-Royal, St. James’s. Queen Victoria came to London to act as sponsor to her great-granddaughter, and King Edward and Queen Alexandra were joint sponsors for their grandchild. The Archbishop of Canterbury administered the rite of baptism. Queen Alexandra took the child from the nurse and placed her in the arms of Queen Victoria, who gave the names of Alexandra Victoria Alberta Edwina Louise. ”

“ In that same year, that is two years after her marriage, Queen Alexandra performed her first public act by opening the Cambridge School of Art. It was in 1865 also that the King attended his first public dinner as President of the Royal Literary Fund, and on this occasion he toasted the ladies in the following graceful words:—“In the presence of a society accustomed to cultivating with such success the flowers of literature, it would be unpardonable to forget the flowers of society.” ”

“ BABY DRINA
"Elizabeth would be a good name for her," said the Duke of Kent. "Elizabeth was the greatest woman who ever sat on the throne of England. The English people are used to the name, and they like it."
"But would the Emperor Alexander be pleased?" asked the Duchess. "If he is to be godfather, ought she not to be named for him?"
"Alexandra—no; Alexandrina," said the Duke thoughtfully. "Perhaps you are right. 'Queen Alexandrina' has a good sound, and the day may come when the sovereign of England will be as glad of the friendship of the Emperor of Russia as the Regent is to-day." ”

“ The King is a warm friend of the coffee palace movement; in this connection it is interesting to recall the Alexandra Trust, founded by Sir Thomas Lipton at the instance of Queen Alexandra, for the purpose of supplying well-cooked and nourishing food to the populace at an inclusive charge of 41⁄2d. It will be remembered that the King and Queen paid a surprise visit to the Alexandra Trust Restaurant in St. Luke’s, in the East End of London, on which occasion the various London papers circulated the most amusingly inconsistent stories of what their Majesties really ate. ”

“ The blow fell with peculiar severity on the King and Queen Alexandra, with whom Princess Alice had been united in the bonds of the closest affection, especially since the King’s illness, in which she had proved herself so devoted a nurse. The link between the Royal brother and sister is significantly shown by the fact that Princess Alice never visited England without paying long visits at Sandringham [161] or at Marlborough House. The King was one of the chief mourners at the funeral in Darmstadt. ”

“ Subsequently he joined the queen at Copenhagen, where he met his wife's nephew, the Tsar Nicholas of Russia, and the tsar's mother, the dowager empress, sister of Queen Alexandra. It was a family gathering of the kind which the king had long since been accustomed to attend periodically. ”

“ The carriage passes along at an ordinary trot, and every one bows, the gentlemen raising their12 hats, in fact keeping them off until the Queen has passed. No woman in Europe knows how to bow more graciously than Queen Alexandra. She is blessed with a long swan-like neck, exquisitely set upon her shoulders, and whether in her carriage or in a décolletée gown at Buckingham Palace, the gracious inclination of her head is a form of queenly bow to be admired. ”

“ One of the busiest years ever spent by the King and Queen Alexandra was 1887, when Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee was celebrated. To His Majesty was left the responsibility of a great number of the arrangements, and on him fell almost entirely the reception and entertainment of the foreign Royal personages who attended the splendid ceremony in the Abbey as Queen Victoria’s guests. ”

“ A significant proof of the young Prince’s amiability and unpretending modesty was to be found in the large number of personal friends whom he attached to himself, both at Cambridge and among his comrades of the 10th Hussars, by ties of sincere esteem. Moreover, it was generally known that between the Duke of Clarence and his mother there existed the strongest possible link of filial and maternal love, and so the Prince came to share in a measure the high place which Queen Alexandra has always held in the hearts of the British people. ”

“ And so, as the great Victorian epoch rolls away into the deep shadow of the past, the Empire rests as it were on a rainbow-edge between the storm and sunshine, grief and hope,—grief for the Monarch that was, hope for the Monarch that is. One invaluable influence Edward VII brings with him to the Throne in his Queen-Consort, the “sea-king’s daughter from over the sea,” whom we all love and admire with a boundless love and admiration. Never has there been a more exquisite woman than the beautiful Princess whom we now55 call Queen Alexandra ”

“ Alexandra never accompanied the Archduchess on her longer walks and rides. She was an accomplished horse-woman and a resigned pedestrian, but she had the frail physique of her race, and had been born of a hard-working fashionable mother with none of that profound sense of parental responsibility so ingrained in the European from queen to peasant. ”

“ But perhaps my youthful imagination ran riot and judging from what people whispered you may think jealousy is as rampant in Russia as it is here.
Queen Alexandra arrived at Peterhof during my sojourn there to spend a few days with her sister, the Empress-Dowager, and I remember so well seeing her. A cordon of sentinels had been drawn only a few paces apart all round the Park interspersed with mounted Cossacks. My uncle has a profound admiration for the Rose Queen, who has held him in great esteem for many years. ”

“ His own love of pageantry and his interest in the stately ordering of court functions responded, moreover, to a marked inclination on the part of the public and of “society” for such things. It was significant that even Radicals and Socialists began to advocate extensions of the prerogative, and to insist on the active part which the Crown should play in public life. The king won the genuine affection and confidence of the people; and in Queen Alexandra he had an ideal consort, to whom all hearts went out. ”

“ Princess Mary, who stood in the relation of second cousin to King Edward, was, although belonging technically to the same generation as Queen Victoria, but a few years older than His Majesty, and the most affectionate and close relations had always existed between them, a fact shown on many occasions throughout their joint lives, and nowhere more strikingly than in the great satisfaction expressed by both the King and Queen Alexandra at the marriage of their only surviving son to the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck. ”

“ The Constitutional Club, London, has her bust of Queen Alexandra, which was seen at the Academy in 1895. Her "Satan" attracted much attention when exhibited in 1894. He is represented as seated on a throne composed of snakes, while he has scales and wings and is armed like a knight. In 1899 her statue of "Peace" was more pleasing, while a hand-mirror of jade and bronze was much admired both in London and Paris, where it was seen in the Exposition of 1900. In 1901 she executed a fountain with a figure of a nymph for a garden in Paris ”

“ She looked tall, black and distinguished. She spoke of Prince Eddy to me with great frankness. I told her I had sometimes wondered at her devotion to one less clever than herself. At this her eyes filled with tears and she explained to me how much she had been in love and the sweetness and nobility of his character. I had reason to know the truth of what she said when one day Queen Alexandra, after talking to me in moving terms of her dead son, wrote in my Prayer Book:
"Man looketh upon the countenance, but God upon the heart. ”

“ Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Opposition Leader, seconded the motion, dealt with the late Queen's personal character, referred to Queen Alexandra as having long reigned in the hearts of the people, and paid high tribute to King Edward: "For the greater part of his life it has fallen to him not only to discharge a large part of the ceremonial public duty which would naturally be performed by the head of the State ”

“ The Princess Alexandra and the Crown Princess of Germany were with her. For twenty-five years the sovereign had so rarely appeared in public that to her subjects this was more than a mere royal procession, it was the coming back to them of their Queen. A great wave of devotion and loyalty swept over the hearts of the throng. "Not the Queen, but my Queen," they said to themselves, and such a greeting was given her as few monarchs have received.
The Abbey had been filled long before. Rich strains of music were coming from the organ. ”

“ For Princess Alexandra.
Westward [31] pass’d the cavalcade;
Whilst music, in its happiest strain,
Accompanied the gladsome train;
Ten thousand voices serenade
Fair Princess Alexandra.
The clouds were wrestling with the sun: [32]
Aloft their rev’rent tears were stay’d,
Respectful to the virtuous maid; [44]
Then gently christen’d her our own—
Fair Princess Alexandra!
The whizzing “trav’ler” sped again
The fair enchantress of our isle,
Unto that kingly domicile, [33]
Wherein awaited our bless’d Queen
For Princess Alexandra. ”

“ Fig. 643 represents the crown of the Queen Consort with which Queen Alexandra was crowned on August 9, 1902. It will be noticed that, unlike the King's crowns, this has eight arches. The circlet which forms the base is 11⁄2 inches in height. The crown is entirely composed of diamonds, of which there are 3972, and these are placed so closely together that no metal remains visible. The large diamond visible in the illustration is the famous Koh-i-noor. Resting upon the rim are four crosses-patée, and as many fleurs-de-lis, from each of which springs an arch. ”

“ Queen Alexandra at one time was very fond of driving tandem, and she has one of the best tandem teams in Great Britain. She is very fond of bay horses, and possesses also a pair of the famous greys bred in the Imperial stables at Leipzig. For many years Her Majesty always rode Kinsky, a Hungarian horse; and she was said to be one of the best horsewomen in Norfolk.
[245]
[246]
Queen Alexandra at Sandringham
From a Photograph by Thomas Fall
[247] The saddle-room is not the least fascinating portion of the stable-yard. Much of the harness is silver and gold-plated. ”