The Portland daily press., 1900-09-12
ROYAL PROPOSALS.
How Some Kings and Queens Have Ar
ranged Their Marriages.

IRON bQ6 LONDON MALI
Without proposals there could be no
marriages. for from time immemorial
men of all nationalities, from the most
untutored savage to the most refined
European, have, according to their several
customs and individual methods, popped
the question:.
This applies equally to the highest as to
the lowest, though the idea generally
obtains that many matches among Euro.
pean royalties, being mere matters Of
stats convenience and utterly lacking
those elements which we term Glove, -
are brought about without any actual
proposal being made by the gentleman
to the lady. How erroneous this is can
readily be proved by taking few nota-
bic examples.
1t was in certain continental cathe-
dral that the Prince of Wales first saw
his wife, and it is an open secret that on
that occasion he was much stru ok with
her beauty. 1t was at Rosenthal, the
place of the Danish royal family, that his
Royal Highness had the a-tete with
the Princess Alexandra, in the course OF
which he asked the daughter of the
Sea Kings to be his wife; nor did he
plead in vain.
The Princes younger brother, the late
Duke of SAKE Coburg and Gotha, wooed
and won his Russian bride in one of the
magnificent salons of the palace at St.
Petersburg; and it is recorded in this
connection that the "sailor Prince" had
to ask the daughter Of the Great White
Gar more than once ere she accepted
him.
The story of how the Queens marriage
came about is at once one OF the most
unique and prettiest in the annals of
it Is so charming that it can scarce be
repeated too often According to court
etiquette, Prince Albert could not pro.
pose to her Majesty. and thus it came
about that the young Queen took the
Initiative, in an essentially maiden WAY
during dance with the Prince at Wind
sor Castle. She was wearing a spray OF
white lilac, and with a blush she took
it from her breast and handed to her
royal sutton. Prince Albert wore a mill
tary uniform, but he did not let the lack
of a buttOnhOlo stand in the way for he
made slit in his coat with his pocket
knife and fastened the flower in it hen
the royal couple slipped into an adjoining
apartment, and in Gay or two after the
engagement OF the Queen was announced.
Line 8afuens around white Lodge We're
the scene of the Duke of York's proposal
to Princess. Mary of Ieck.
In Leaves from the Journal Of Our
Life in the Highlands" the Queen
wrote as follows with regard to the en-
gagement of Princess Louise to tho pres
emit Duke of Argyll: "This was an event
ful day. Our dear Louise was engaged
to Lord Lorne. The event took place
during a walk from the Glassalt Shiel
to Loeb Dhu. We got home by z. Louise,
who returned home some time after /,
told me that Lorne had spoken to her,
and that she bad accepted him, knowing
that 1 should approve. -
It was in Scotland also that another of
the Queens daughters became engaged.
The two royal lovers wandered off on a
moor from the rest of the party with
whom they had been Espying the white
heather, the Crown Prince of Germany
plucked a spray and offered it to the
Princess Royal, who accepted it, and
with it the hand of the Prince. The be
trothal was shortly afterward announced
1t was during family party at Copen-
hagen that the present Gar OF All the
Russias proposed to Princess Alix Of
Hesse. lit is understood that he first
made known his devotion to Princess
Alix while strolling with her among the
flowers IN the palace garden.