Sons, Servants and Statesmen (35 page)

This came at the worst possible time for the British ambassador at Constantinople, who feared that peace negotiations could be jeopardised by the entertaining of a Russian officer on board a British ship who might take advantage of his connections with royalty and be made party to confidential information. In order to prevent his sovereign and the Admiralty from hearing vague and inaccurate rumours from unofficial sources, he cabled to London. The Queen was furious, for the Duke’s behaviour had come perilously close to treason. She wrote to him angrily that he had been ‘most injudicious and imprudent’, and that he had undoubtedly damaged any prospects of naval promotion for Louis and himself. After her temper had subsided, she was persuaded that no harm had actually been done, for Sandro had not been shown any confidential equipment or been granted access to naval secrets. The Duke had been forgiven as well by early summer, but only after he threatened to demand a court of enquiry in order to clear his name.

Once peace was declared and confirmed by the Congress of Berlin, the Duke, who had spent the summer at Coburg, where he was heir to his uncle Duke Ernest, was keen to return home, especially as there was no prospect of immediate active service to detain him on Malta. The Queen was reluctant to have him back so soon, partly as she thought it too soon after the
Sultan
affair and partly as she regarded his love of society as a potentially bad influence on the Duke of Connaught. He threatened to resign his commission if he was not allowed back, or given something constructive to do.

Providentially, his brother-in-law, the Marquess of Lorne, had recently been appointed Governor-General of Canada. Disraeli, who had made the appointment, thought the Canadians would regard it as a great honour if the Queen’s son-in-law and daughter were living among them. In view of his wife’s royal status, Lorne suggested that it would be appropriate for them to land at Halifax from one of Her Majesty’s ships. HMS
Black Prince
, to which the Duke of Edinburgh had been transferred when
Sultan
returned to Portsmouth for refitting, was chosen to make the Atlantic crossing which was to take the new Governor-General and his wife to Canada.

Leopold longed to be given some similarly constructive role in life. He rebelled at his mother’s wish to protect him from any kind of harm, and by the time he became an adult he was openly rebelling against her orders. ‘He is so wanting in all dutiful and respectful forms and seems to delight in showing a childish defiance of my wishes,’
⁶
she complained to his sister Louise when he was aged twenty-two.

At Balmoral one evening after a game of billiards with the Liberal member of parliament John Bright, Leopold told his equerry that, if not allowed to do something useful, he would stand for parliament as an ‘extreme radical’. Nobody took his threat seriously, as he was known to share the family’s committed Tory politics. All the Queen’s sons were basically, and not surprisingly, Conservatives at heart, if not all the daughters. The Princess Royal was more inclined towards the Liberals and remained something of a Gladstonian supporter to the end of her days, while Louise was likewise of a relatively progressive turn of mind. However, in Leopold’s case it was widely recognised that he was far too intelligent for his talents to be wasted on representative duties and idleness.

He approached Disraeli, who could see the young man’s resemblance to his late father. Although Leopold clearly had none of the political experience or knowledge that the Prince Consort had assimilated so rapidly during the first few years of his marriage, Disraeli felt that he might be able to take on something of a similar role as the Queen’s confidential assistant. The wily Prime Minister could also see that to adopt such a course of action could reduce the work imposed on him by constant attendance on the sovereign, as well as providing the Prince with suitable employment. The Queen readily agreed with him that Leopold could perhaps be groomed as an unofficial assistant private secretary. Her official secretary, Sir Henry Ponsonby, liked and respected Leopold, though he was concerned lest the Queen might be unduly influenced in issues of the day, such as the Turkish crisis, where her youngest son’s Tory leanings might threaten to bring the impartiality of the crown into question. He also saw dangers in elevating such a young and inexperienced prince into a position for which he was insufficiently qualified.

In April 1877 the Queen spoke to Disraeli about obtaining a cabinet key for Leopold, which would give him access to official papers, as well as a facility to help the Queen with private correspondence and despatches, with special emphasis on foreign affairs. The Prince of Wales was understandably indignant that his brother should be allowed access to state secrets which had always been denied to him as heir to the throne, though relations between the Princes did not suffer as a result.

On the contrary, the Prince of Wales had been magnanimous enough to make a recent approach to the Queen regarding a peerage for Leopold, who was now aged twenty-four. Arthur had been granted his at a similar age, and Alfred his when he was two years younger. She refused the request, as a result of which Leopold wrote to her, bitterly complaining that Arthur’s duties in particular were far less arduous than she believed, because he had spent considerable time during the previous few months ‘amusing himself’ or officially on leave. Any reproach of her favourite son was like a red rag to a bull, and the Queen was furious with Leopold for his ingratitude, fiercely defending Arthur, ‘who is a pattern to all young men & whom you always find fault with’.
⁷

In 1878 Arthur, Duke of Connaught, announced his engagement to Princess Louise of Prussia, daughter of the German Emperor William’s ill-tempered brother Prince Frederick Charles. With some asperity, the Queen wrote to the Crown Princess, Vicky, that there was really no need for Arthur to get married at all, as he was ‘so good’. But she was pleased that he had found such a suitable young woman, and once she had met the prospective bride, any resistance soon evaporated. She welcomed Louise even more on learning that the Princess had led an extremely unhappy life at home in Berlin, as the daughter of estranged parents. Had she seen ‘Louischen’ before Arthur spoke to her of his feelings for the girl, the Queen wrote to Vicky, ‘I should not have grieved him by hesitating for a moment in giving my consent to their union. She is a dear, sweet girl of the most amiable and charming character, and whatever nationality she was, I feel sure dear Arthur could not have chosen more wisely.’
⁸

On 13 March 1879 the ceremony took place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor. Sadly, the wedding had been overshadowed by the death of Alice from diphtheria in December 1878 (see p. 198), though Court mourning was suspended for the occasion. The Queen wore the Koh-I-Noor diamond, the Indian jewel in which she took such pride, and, for the first time since Albert’s death, a Court train. Her favourite son’s wedding was worthy of the best that she could do. Soon after his weding he was promoted to Major-General and placed in command of the 1st Guards Brigade, serving in Egypt under Sir Garnet Wolseley.

In Canada, the life that Louise and Lorne led free from the Queen’s all-pervading presence was initially quite successful. They had settled at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, overlooking the St Lawrence River. Lorne was flexible and aware of Canadian sensitivities, and it was said that he became perhaps the most Canadian of all British holders of the office. The one minor controversy in which he was involved, regarding the dismissal of Luc Letellier, LieutenantGovernor of Quebec, a move demanded by the Conservative federal government (a dismissal which Lorne opposed, but later approved under instruction from the Colonial Office), did him no damage.

Leopold joined them briefly at one stage, and all three travelled around Canada before making a short visit to the United States. The Queen was startled to receive an effusive New York newspaper article about their royal guests headed vic’s chicks. Leopold had a terrier bitch called Vic, and when he sent the paper to England for her to read, she commented how odd it was of them to mention his dog.

Much to his delight, Leopold had managed to gain something of the independence which he had so craved. In May 1878 he had provoked the Queen’s wrath by refusing to join her on a visit to Balmoral, on the grounds that he was so bored there. It was a verdict with which all the family heartily agreed. When a lady-atwaiting there said that when people were temporarily unhappy they sometimes killed themselves, Ponsonby added with tongue in cheek that ‘suicide might be common here’. The Queen told Leopold that if he had such an aversion to her beloved Highland home, then he would have to stay at Buckingham Palace, in his room upstairs. On no account was he to go to Ascot or Epsom, or even join Bertie and Alix at Marlborough House. With great reluctance, she granted him permission to go to Paris for three or four days, but once he was there he coolly informed his mother that he intended to remain there for a fortnight. Initially she was outraged by his defiance, particularly as she objected to his going to the French capital of all places, that ‘sinful city’. But he returned unscathed and had made his point by standing up to her. She had seen that he was capable of travelling abroad without injuring himself, and at last he had won some degree of autonomy.

Like Alfred, Leopold had a passion for music, and both brothers were friends with the Queen’s favourite composer, Arthur Sullivan, a prolific writer of choral works, symphonies and songs, though known above all for his music for the Savoy Operas with librettist William S. Gilbert. Alfred persuaded them to support the cause of more free tuition for young students of music, and they made regular speeches on the subject. He was an enthusiastic amateur violinist himself and regularly performed with orchestras, though some at Court (including his own brothers) were inclined to be less than complimentary about his standard of playing as a soloist at home. He was also responsible for the foundation of what would become one of the royal family’s most priceless assets. Since boyhood he had been an enthusiastic collector of postage stamps, and in 1890 he attended the inaugural ceremony of the Philatelic Society in his capacity as first Honorary President, when he opened their first exhibition.

When diphtheria struck the grand ducal family at Darmstadt in the winter of 1878, four-year-old May succumbed. Worn out by having to nurse each member of the family in turn apart from second daughter Ella, who had been sent to stay with relatives as soon as the disease struck them, Alice also caught the infection. Weakened by years of indifferent health, she did not have the strength to withstand it, as her anxious mother had feared. By a peculiar irony of fate she died on 14 December, the seventeenth anniversary of her father’s death.

Leopold had always been especially devoted to Alice, her husband and children, and of all the siblings he was the one most affected by the tragedy. Although the doctors tried to dissuade him from travelling to Darmstadt to attend the funeral lest he too catch the infection, he insisted that nothing would stop him going to pay his last respects, as did the Prince of Wales. They duly joined the other mourners at the obsequies, and in January 1879 the widowed Louis followed them back to England with his children. The brothers took them to Osborne and then to Windsor, and over the next few weeks Leopold went out with the father and his children during the mornings, before playing with the children every afternoon in the Round Tower.