The Life of King Edward VII
glittering orders and gleaming gems and beautiful dresses harmonized
well with the stately setting of the Chapel Royal.
THE GORGEOUS CHRISTENING CEREMONY
Besides the Royal party, which included Frederick William IV., King of
Prussia, there were a throng of Ambassadors, Knights of the Garter,
Members of the Privy Council, Peers and Peeresses, statesmen and heads
of the Church. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of
London, Winchester, Oxford and Norwich were in special attendance, and
the sponsors for the young Prince were the King of Prussia, the Duchess
of Kent (proxy for the Duchess of Saxe-Cobourg), the Duke of Cambridge
(proxy for the Duchess of Saxe-Gotha), Princess Augusta of Cambridge
(proxy for Princess Sophia) and Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Cobourg. The
cost of this gorgeous christening ceremony and attendant functions was
said to have been fully two million dollars. A part of this was,
however, due to the entertainments accorded King Frederick William IV.,
who, as the chief Protestant monarch of the Continent, was given a
particularly cordial and elaborate welcome. In connection with the
christening of the future King it is interesting to note that an
ecclesiastical newspaper, of Toronto, called _The Church_, referred to
the event on March 19th, 1842, and declared that should the Prince live
to be King he would be known as Edward VII. On February 3rd Queen
Victoria opened Parliament in person with the following as the
preliminary words in the Speech from the Throne: "I cannot meet you in
Parliament assembled without making a public acknowledgment of my
gratitude to Almighty God on account of the birth of the Prince, my son;
an event which has completed the measure of my domestic happiness and
has been hailed with every manifestation of affectionate attachment to
my person and Government by my faithful and loyal people."
CHILDHOOD OF THE PRINCE
The early events of the Prince's life were followed with much interest
by the public and with a personal and individual feeling which grew in
volume with the ever-increasing popularity of the young Queen. The Court
in those years was a gay one and events such as the Queen's famous
Plantagenet Ball of 1842; the state visit to King Louis Philippe of
France in 1843; the coming of Nicholas I., Czar of all the Russias, to
the Court of St. James in 1844, followed a little later by William,
Prince of Prussia--afterwards William I. of Germany, and by a return
visit of the King and Queen of the French; kept the social demands of
the period up to a very high pitch. Yet the quiet, careful surroundings
of an almost ideal home were given to the young Prince and to those who
afterwards came to the family circle, by a mother who, in the midst of
many national cares and private anxieties could write to her
much-respected friend and uncle--Leopold of Belgium--that "my happiness
at home, the love of my husband, his kindness, his advice, his support
and his company make up for all and make me forget all."
The Princess Victoria, afterwards for a brief year Empress of Germany,
had been born on November 21, 1840; the Prince of Wales was the next
child; the Princess Alice, who afterwards married the Grand Duke of
Hesse, was born on April 25, 1843; Prince Alfred--Duke of Edinburgh and
of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in later years--followed on August 6, 1844; the
Princess Helena came next on May 25, 1846, and afterwards became the
wife of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein; the Princess Louise, who
married the Marquess of Lorne and future Duke of Argyll, was born on
March 18, 1848; Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, followed on May 1,
1850; Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, on April 7, 1853; Princess
Beatrice, afterwards wife and widow of Prince Henry of Battenberg, was
born on April 14, 1857, and completed the Royal family for the time.
The greatest care and attention was given to the youthful Prince.
Writing to King Leopold soon after his birth--on December 7, 1841--the
Queen had said: "I wonder very much who my little boy will be like. You
will understand how fervent are my prayers, and I am sure every one's
must be, to see him resemble his father in every respect, both in body
and mind." From the earliest period the child grew into his life of
ceremony and state, but it was a process carefully graded to suit the
development of natural faculties. Nothing appears to have been allowed
to unduly burden his gradual growth in experience and knowledge and
certainly a more pleasant domestic environment and life could hardly be
imagined. At a later period his studies were so varied in character as
to excite some slight apprehension in a part of the public mind.
The first public appearance of the Prince was on February 4, 1842, when
the Queen was inspecting some troops near Windsor and the babe was held
up by his nurse from a window of the Castle so that the crowd could see
him. He has been described in many prints and stories as being a very
lively infant and child. Lady Lyttelton[1], a sister to Mrs. Gladstone,
was in charge of the Royal nursery as a sort of trusted Governess during
the first six years of his life and everything was conducted with
regularity and care. The Queen personally supervised the arrangements,
whether for instruction, pleasure or exercise, though she often had to
express in diary or letter her regret at not being able to be as much
with her children as she desired. Simplicity was, perhaps, the guiding
principle of this early training, though it was combined with a certain
amount of familiarity in matters of ceremony and formality. In
September, 1843, when the Queen and Prince Consort were in France the
Royal children were at Brighton in charge of Lady Lyttelton and the
people used to take great delight in waiting for the daily outing of the
little Prince and his sister and the presentation of a loyal salute by
the raising of hats and the waving of handkerchiefs. The child had been
taught to raise his chubby fist to his forehead in reply and a
journalist of the time veraciously declares that he did it with "evident
enjoyment and infantile dignity." A little later, on December 20th, a
party of nine Ojibbeway Indians were presented to the Queen at Windsor
Castle and the Chief gravely referred to the toddling Royal infant in
his speech as "the very big little White Father whose eyes are like the
sky that sees all things and who is fat with goodness like a winter
bear."
Another attractive event in these annals of childhood was a visit of Tom
Thumb to Buckingham Palace on March 23, 1844. Not long afterwards, on
June 5th, the little Prince saw his first Review, on the occasion of the
Emperor of Russia's visit, and clapped his hands and shouted at the
splendid spectacle. On March 24, 1846, he was given that first and
greatest pleasure of all children, a visit to the circus (Astley's). He
applauded liberally and when the clown was brought to the Royal box at
his request, the little Prince gravely shook hands with him and thanked
him "for making me laugh so much." Similar stories might be multiplied
in many pages. Every trifling incident of the Royal childhood seems,
indeed, to have been treasured by some one. Late in 1846 a visit was
made on the _Victoria and Albert_ yacht to the coast of Cornwall and,
after the landing, the Royal party went to Penrhyn where the little
Prince, as Duke of Cornwall, was formally welcomed by Mayor and
Corporation as their feudal lord. In August of the succeeding year he
was taken by the Queen and Prince Consort on a tour around the west
coast of Scotland and during a visit to Cluny Macpherson's Scottish
home, he received one of the first of a multitude of interesting
presents--a ring containing a miniature of Prince Charles Stuart. In
August 1844, he accompanied his parents on a visit to Ireland, where he
met with splendid acclamation from the people and was created Earl of
Dublin by the Queen. It has been said that the reception was so
enthusiastic as to have left a profound impression on the child's mind.
On October 30, 1849, when nearly eight years old, the Prince of Wales
performed his first public function. Accompanied by the little Princess
Royal and his father he proceeded in state from Westminister in a Royal
barge rowed by watermen. All London turned out to see the youthful
royalties--"Puss and the boy" as the Queen called them in her Diary--and
Lady Lyttelton in a letter to Mrs. Gladstone has left a charming picture
of the pleasure expressed by the little Prince at his reception and at
the various quaint customs revived for the occasion. It was at this
time that Miss Louisa Alcott, author of _Little Women_, wrote home that
the Prince was "a yellow-haired laddie, very like his mother. Fanny and
I nodded and waived as he passed and he openly winked his boyish eye at
us, for Fanny with her yellow curls waving looked rather rowdy and the
poor little Prince wanted some fun." Two years later, on May 1st, the
youthful Heir to the Throne assisted the Queen at the brilliant
ceremonies attending the opening of the first and great Exhibition of
that year.
EARLY EDUCATION OF THE PRINCE
Meanwhile, the important matter of education had been occupying the
attention of the Queen and her husband. After careful inquiry during
nearly a year the Rev. Henry Mildred Birch was selected and on April 10,
1844, the Prince Consort wrote, in a private and family letter, that
"Bertie will be given over in a few weeks into the hands of a tutor whom
we have found in Mr. Birch, a young, good-looking, amiable man who was a
tutor at Eton and who not only himself took the highest honours at
Cambridge but whose pupils have also won special distinction. It is an
important step and God's blessing be upon it, for upon the good
education of princes and especially of those who are destined to govern,
the welfare of the world in these days very greatly depends." This
gentleman acted until 1852 when, upon the advice of Sir James Stephen,
the appointment was given to Mr. Frederick W. Gibbs, who retained it for
the succeeding six years. In special lines of study such as Art and
Music there were various instructors for the young Prince as well as for
the rest of the family--the Rev. Charles Tarver being his classical
tutor, Sir Edwin Landseer an instructor in the art of painting and Mr.
E. H. Corbould his teacher in water-colours.
The descriptions of the Prince of Wales in these childhood days vary
greatly; probably in natural accordance with the variable temperament
of his age. Lady Lyttelton who, perhaps, knew him best, described him to
Mr. Greville in 1852--though that interesting _litterateur_ is not
always reliable--as being "extremely shy and timid, with very good
principles and, particularly, an exact observer of truth." The
description is, however, so much in harmony with his bringing up that it
may well be accepted as accurate. These years, however, passed rapidly
away in a commingling of instruction, ceremonial and innocent
recreation. The Baroness Bunsen in her _Memoirs_ gives a pleasant
picture which illustrates the character of the amusements current in the
Royal family at their different homes at Windsor, Osborne, or Balmoral.
This particular incident was a Masque devised by the children, when
Prince "Bertie" was twelve years old, in honour of the anniversary of
their parents' marriage. The Prince who represented Winter and was clad
in a coat covered with imitation icicles, recited some verses from
Thomson's Seasons. Princess Alice was Spring; the Princess Royal,
Summer; Prince Alfred, Autumn; while Princess Helena, representing St.
Helena, the traditional mother of Constantine and native of Britain,
called down Heaven's benediction upon the Royal couple.