Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Art. 1.-QUEEN VICTORIA AND FRANCE.*

WHEN the Princess Victoria was born, on May 24, 1819, she had, except for somewhat distant connexions with the Royal Houses of Holland and Denmark, no relation who was not of German blood. The nation over which she was to rule had willed that it should be so. In the Becond half of the 17th century, the reigns of two monarchs who were half-French had convinced the people of this country that their future sovereigns must be chosen from the German House which could trace its descent, through James I to Henry VII and Edward IV and so to William the Norman, and through James VI to Robert the Bruce and so to Malcolm Canmore and his English Queen, the descendant of Alfred the Great. Three considerations made it certain that the House of Hanover would inter-marry with German princely amilies. Our law provided that all such marriages must e with Protestants; and the custom of the time, subequently supported by the Royal Marriage Act of 1772, nsured that the marriages of royal personages should econtracted within the limits of what may be described royal circles. Germany abounded in Protestant princes nd princesses; and it was, therefore, in the nature of nings that they should provide from among their umber consorts for British princes and princesses.

At the date of Princess Victoria's birth, the danger rom France was at an end; and it was a fortunate

The quotations marked with an asterisk are taken from Queen ictoria's unpublished correspondence and diaries, by gracious permission IH.M. The King.

[blocks in formation]
« VorigeDoorgaan »