The times., 1898-08-07
TWO ROYAL MATCH-MAKERs.
Rivalry Retwecn Queen Victoria
and LOuisa of Denmark.


and Louisa of Denmark.
Queen Victoria is the chiefest of them.
She comes honestly by her matchmaking
knack-which Thackeray says inheres in
all good women.
In the life settlement Of her own young
lings. the Queen was much hampered by
religious considerations. After she had
secured the Crown Prince of Prussia for
her eldest daughter. she was sort of
hymeneal Alexander. weeping for more
Protestant princes to conquer. AS the
temporal head of the English Church it
would never. never have done to have her
sons and daughters go off into Catholi-
cism. or even the Greek Church. The
British taxpayer and the "Ron-conformist
conscience" would have made a pretty
pother over such thing. That disposed
of various matrimonial potentiaiities
among continental royalties. The Prince
of Wales may have made a love match
but 1t is beyond question her Lutheran
faith more than her beauty and charm
which recommended Alexandra of Dem
mark. The nation might have grown tur-
bulent. and heady at the prospect Of a
Catholic future queen. AT any rate the
reigning queen did not choose to risk it
then any more than she chose to do It
more than thirty years later. when the
lGckiess Duke OF Clarence fell so madIy
in love with the beautiful Helen dor
leans.
Alfred. Duke of Edinburgh. now Duke
of Saxe-Coburg. handsomest. stingiest
ard most gifted of the queens children
she managed TO mate exactly to her
mind. He was sent TO St Petersburg-of
course there was no talk of wife-hunting
and so captivated the Russian Emper-
ors daughter. nothing would do her but
to marry Aim, although the marriage ran
counter to every line of Russian pcIcy,
interest and tradition. Grand Duchess
Marie was her fathers idoI-he could
gainsay nothing But for his untimely
taking of by an anarchist bomb, it Is
unlikely the relations between the two
countries would ever have reached their
present tension.
In matching her grandchildren. the
queen has had a very much freer hand.
There she could leave out Of account the
non-conformist conscience. How well
she has realized the fact may be CLEANED
from this incomplete reckoning of
thrones present and prospective, filed
BY her descendants. Emperor William is
her grandson; his sister, Princess Sophie,
will one day be queen of Greece, unless
Greece gets out of the way of having
queens. Emperor William has six sons.
one of whom is slated TO marry the
young Queen of Holland Failing a Prus-
sian prince, Wilhelmina may be mated
with one of her English cousins, who
are the queens grandsOns, children Of the
dead Prince Leopold. Their mother. a
Princess of Waldeck-Pyrmont, refused
old King William of Holland, who turned
for consolation to her sister the present
queen regent.
Even should an earthquake enguf the
six young Prussian princes, Victoria
blood would hold the throne Prince
Henry is not merely her grandson, ou
married to her granddaughter, Irene OF
Hesse The Hesse princelings, Indeed
have been trump cards for the roya
matchmaker. Princess Elizabeth IS
Russian grand duchess, with only three
lives. none of them robust, between hel
husband and the throne. 1t was by hel
/ help-she is witty, and beautiful, an'
lust the least bit wicked-that Queen VIC
| toria was enabled to make Princess ALI
Tsarina The Tsar Nicholas, an impas
4 sive and somewhat cold-blooded yOun'
| person, was deep in forbidden tolls. AK
/ herself. poor as princess could be, ant
/ willful as she was beautiful, did not car
/ TO have greatness thrust upon ner. aIohl
/ with an Indifferent husband But grand
/ mamma persisted-so the wedding cam
| of. and that in spite Of a heap OF dip
| lomatic effort TO prevent it.
! OF the half-Russian Edinburgh prlh
/ cesses. one is Queen or Roumania-a
| least for so long as Roumania will toler
/ ate her new HohenZollern king. IN
other is Grand Duchess of HesSe, having
| married her cousin. the Grand Duke Lou
! is. and repented it rather bitterly IN
/ Grand Dukedoms of Hesse and SaSe-Co
burg are. for size and revenues, nardE
worth reckoning, but their possessors ca
hold up their heads with the creates
rulers of Europe.
/ OpDortuntiy cons dered Queen Louisa
| of Denmark. has distanced Victoria Il
| the matter of matchmaking She wa
! njddle-aeed before her husband beSal
TO re!gn-zhe had been poor always; sh
was neither brilliant nor beautiful-be
yond all that her realm was a brumma
| gem second-rate sort Of kingdom. Not
! withstauding. one Of her daughters
| Princess Dagmar. was Tsarina; one o
her grands0ns is Tsar of "a the Rus
| esas; her daughter, Alexandra, will b
| Queen of England; her third daughter
| Thyra. Duchess Of Cumberland, Is mis-
tress of the greatest private fortune !
| Europe. Of her sons. the Crown Prince
who will reign after his father, marie
one of the enormously rich Bourbo
princesses: the second of them. Prime
| George. married a Russian Gran
Duchess. and became King Of Greece
| Thus it VIII be seen. that through
progeny far less numerous, Queen Louis
| can fairly reckon thrones with Quee
Victoria. In the final accounting, whe
! the balance sheets of ages come 10 ad
| iustnent ii will be not a little curiou
to discover how far the personal equation
| as represented by these two aIch-match
makers. goes ahead of the w5les of states
men. and the deep-laid sch5mes Of d-pio
macy.