ROYAL MATRIMONY. T HE causes of royal wedlock have not been
without consequence on the political state of Europe. When Peter I. of Russia was in want of a wife for his son Alexis, he had a score of the prettiest marriageable princesses sent up from Germany to Moscow, from among whom he selected the Czarina in ape. The ladies not approved of were sent back to mamma. So much was this plan liked by the Russian autocrats, that it has been followed up to the present day, with the sole difference that not the august damsels them- selves, but their portraits, have to undertake the northern journey. It is owing, to some extent, to this original marriage system, that the Czars are among the hand- somest princes of Europe, and that the daughters of the family have been sought for so eagerly by petty Teutonic Dukes, Grand Dukes, and Electors. The effect of this state of things has been most marked in the history of Germany for the last hundred years. The continually increasing ties of blood between the Russian autocrats and the German sove- reigns have done more to uphold an ultra-conservative policy in the centre of Europe than any other artificial cause. At this very moment the Russian influence in the thirty states of the Confederation may be accurately defined according to the matrimonial relationship of the hereditary rulers with the court of St. Petersburg. It would not be difficult even, with due consultation of the Almanach de Gotha, to construct a diagram showing the exact angle at which some twenty from among the thirty sovereigns incline due east. There are few royal individualities as yet in the centre of Europe who can stand right perpendicular upon the ground. Those who do not bend east lean westward, also by force of matri- monial attraction, under an angle of inclination quite as strong, if not quite as rigid. On the whole, however, the westward movement is not altogether so pronounced as the opposite, though it is of more ancient date. When Elector Frederick V. of the Palatinate, afterwards sovereign of Bohemia, and known as the Winter-King, sought the hand of the eldest daughter of James I. of England, it was with the avowed intention of acquiring the moral sup- S:rof the freest country in Europe. This was so well un- isttood on the Continent, that the affiance became the watchword of Frederick's friends and foes, and his noble consort, Elizabeth, was exposed almost more than himself to feudal and Ultramontane daggers and poison. The results of the union, as is well known, were the loss of the throne of Bohemia and the gain of that of Great Britain. Henceforth, German sovereigns found themselves in involuntary contact with the liberal institutions of the West, it being impossible to prevent the gradual expansion of matrimonial into political relations. Such connexion was all-important in times when there was more intercourse be- tween princes than between nations, when travelling was unknown to all but a few, and high barriers separated people from people. It was due to the matrimonial alliances with Great Britain that many German sovereigns became imbued with constitutional ideas long before they were dreamt of among the upper and middle classes. The royal Georges, whom few accused of radicalism in this country, were naturally in the position of advanced liberals in Germany, and the principles which they represented, or were supposed to represent, were shared gradually by all their Teutonic relations, every one of them imbued with due re- spect for the throne of the lion and the leopard. Thus, with Russian marriages on the one side, and English alliances on the other, German princedom in course of time split into two divisions, clearly traceable, in strict genealogical order, to the present day. The high conservative Russian party for a long time was decidedly the strongest, both numerically and as including the Hohenzollern family and other powerful sovereigns ; and it was not till within the last forty years that the liberal British fraction rose to a certain degree of influence and consideration. The change was occasioned chiefly by a very curious series of events in modern history —the sudden ascendancy of the princely house of Saxe- Coburg. It is but to state a plain truth to say that the great majority of German princes and princesses are not distin- guished by personal beauty. Perhaps the everlasting cousin marriages have had something to do with this unpleasant fact, or it may be that the system of hothouse education, long in fashion amongst the highest German families, has had its influence on the physical degeneracy of the royal race. At any rate, in the course of a century, rare beauty has seldom sat on the thrones of the Vaterland, and what comeliness there existed was commonly forthwith exported for Muscovite use. The great Northern family could not do without a constant supply of foreign-grown blood and muscle, which no other country but royal Germany was able to send. It often occurred that desirable princes and princesses were bespoken at the tender age of ten or eleven for some infantine grand- duchess or grand-duke, and few really handsome Herzogs or Ffirstinnen grew up into manhood without an offer of some sort or another from St. Petersburg. But it so happened, about thirty years ago, that the little family of Saxe-Saalfeld-Coburg, the elder and poorer branch of the princely house of Saxony, had an unusual num- ber of available sons and daughters, all more or less distinguished by physical beauty, and it likewise happened that there were several vacancies, about the same time, on West European thrones. Unlike the younger or royal line, who became Catholic to gain the fleeting crown of Poland, this elder branch of Saxony had always stood in the foremost rank of liberal German princes, and leant westward under a greater angle than almost any other sovereigns. It was this good constitutional sound of the name of Coburg which bore its fruit at the period just mentioned, raising the family to some of the finest thrones of Europe. In 1831 Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was chosen King of the Belgians, after having refused the crown of Greece ; in 1836 Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg allied himself to Donna Maria da Gloria, and became King of Portugal ; in 1840 the Queen of Great Britain gave her hand to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg ; and in 1843 the King of the French mar- ried his eldest daughter to Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg. Thus, in less than a dozen years the Coburg family came to be allied and to occupy four of the most important thrones of Western Europe, thereby changing completely the inner constitution of the great family of monarchs. The matri- monial axis, hitherto lying far east, was suddenly transplanted far west, and royal family alliances, so often the engine of absolutism, were pressed into the service of constitutional liberty. An event which has only occurred within the last few days, strikingly shows the power already exercised by the system, knitted by the new family alliances of Western Europe. The young King of Portugal, in want of a consort to share the troubles and splendour of his constitutional throne, had set his eyes on a certain Bavarian Princess, in- tending to offer her his hand and, possibly, heart. The fact, however, had no sooner become known to the liberal advisers of his Majesty, than they strongly protested in the matter. Against the little Princess herself they had nothing to urge ; but they inveighed against the unfortunate fact of her intimate relationship to an undesirable ex-King of Naples, to an anti-constitutional Kaiser, and to various other uncon- stitutional potentates. The dangers of such an alliance to Portugal were eloquently depicted by the frank minister. president, and the consequence was that King Louis gave up the idea of his little Bavarian Princess, and resigned himself to accept a daughter of the constitutional Majesty of Italy. Probably sentimental ladies will think this a very hard case, and set down the advisers of royal Louis as real monsters of iniquity. There is no doubt it is a hard case ; but the question is, whether the hardship would not be greater still were the romantic young King to have it all his own way. Experience probably has taught the Portu- guese ministers that even a constitutional king has still a great deal of power, which, unwisely wielded, may lead to ruin and destruction. To prevent the consort of a king from sharing such power is naturally impossible, and, therefore, the only thing which remains is to prevent the accession of a queen whose relationship has a chance of leading to such results. Very likely King Louis perceived himself, without elaborate argument, that having great rights, he had also great duties to perform as a true constitutional monarch. And beyond the realm of romance the evil inflicted in this case seems not very great. Royal Louis is not quite twenty- four, and his destined Italian bride—Princess Maria Pia, youngest daughter of Victor Emanuel—has only seen sixteen summers, and is said to be very pretty and accomplished. The lot is endurable, even for a king. A glance at the present political state of Europe, from the point of view of royal family alliances, strongly shows the wisdom of the members of the Portuguese Cabinet in setting themselves against a Bavarian marriage, and advo- eating a union with liberal Italy. A slight examination will show that the whole of the sovereigns of Europe are split at present into three sections, forming political as well as family parties. The House of Hapsburg, allied to Bavaria and the old Bourbons, form the centre of the first section, around which gathers popedom and absolutism, and all that is rotten and antiquated in the life of states and of nations. The second party, including the liberal-conservative sovereigns, is represented chiefly by Russia and the Hohenzollern family, with a train of minor German princes. Finally, the third section is centred in the House of Coburg, the representative of constitutional kingship. All the liberal princes of Western Europe, the rulers of Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, and others are more or less connected with this group, the influence of which is extending° from year to year. According to all appearances, a union of the second and third groups i will take place before long, in which case absolutism is doomed. The group of liberal sovereigns on the one side is getting more and more connected in bonds of blood relationship, while the cluster of absolute princes, on the other, is likewise holding together with a sort of desperate pertinacity. In the pray of these matrimonial dynamics even the new French dynasty, the youngest of royal families, has already taken part. The high price, in blood and treasure, which the French Emperor paid for the alliance of his cousin with the eldest daughter of Victor Emanuel, shows how much the astute founder of the third empire values this power. It is well known what efforts he himself made to get connected with the House of Coburg ; and his resolution, after the failure of these efforts, to stand neutral among the royal family groups, instead of accepting the band of an Archduchess, was certainly the wisest. The nephew clearly has drawn more than one lesson from the history of the uncle, and has learnt something also from the policy of his immediate predecessor on the throne. Even at present, family alliances, more than anything else, make the House of Orleans a dangerous rival to the House of Bonaparte, at the same moment that the elder Bourbons have shelved themselves behind Kaiser and Pope. The Bourbons, even in matrimony, seem to have " learnt nothing and forgotten nothing."
Previous page
