Victorian chivalry
From Eric E. Rich, M.A., Ph.D.
Sir: Victor Montagu, in your issue of March 30, gives the impression that Queen Victoria personified the age of chivalry, but 1 expect he does not know how she treated her cousin, the blind King of Hanover. If Victoria had died childless he would have been King in her place. As it was she almost sold him to the Prussians, thus contributing, in a minor way, to the war of 1914. Victoria doted on her eldest daughter, Crown Princess of Prussia and later Empress of Germany for a short time. When the Prussians invaded Hanover in 1866 Victoria took the Prussian side, although she did a little to help the King of Hanover to recover some of his financial resources. When he came to England after his defeat she used all her influence to send him away and discouraged him from taking his rightful seat in the House of Lords as Duke of Cumberland. He left England after a short time and never
returned. He died in 1878 and was given a magnificent funeral in Paris (just to annoy the Germans?) His body was brought to England to a hushed up burial in Frogmore, the royal mausoleum (just to please the Germans?)
I was brought up with a charming portrait of the future King as a child of eight (before he lost his sight) and this is now in the National Portrait Gallery. Eric E. Rich 24 Treemount Court, Grove Avenue, Epsom
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