The Washington herald., 1916-04-30
YOUR WEDDING DAY
April 30-Wiliam, Prince of Orange,
and Mary, Princess Royal.
By MARY MARSHALL.

When Mary, princess royal, daughter
Of the unfortunate Charles I, was mar
ried, two hundred and ninety-fve years
ago. she was but ten years old and the
bridegroom was but sixteen. Still her
grace and beauty were celebrated far and
wide and her numerous accomplishments
were subjects of no little comment.
Charles Lewis the Elector Palatine, one
of her numerous rejected suitors. was so
disconsolate that he publicly refused to
attend her Wedding
The match between Mary and the
youthful bridegroom. William. prince of
Orange, had been proposed the year be-
fore, but the suit had been rejected be-
cause Mary's father, Charles I, wanted
her to marry a son of Philip ". of
Spain. But as this alliance failed to ma =
ture. the prince of Orange was accepted
as the next best suitor.
On February 10, 1641. the engagement
was announced to Parliament, and great
emphasis was laid upon the fact Of it
being a valuable political alliance be-
tween the Dutch and the English. Still,
when the wedding was celebrated, less
than three months later, there was but
little ceremony and almost no display
such as one would expect on the occa-
sion of the marriage of the princess
royal.
This was because Henrietta Marie,
Mary's mother, seriously opposed the
match. After the wedding. the prince re-
turned to Holland and Mary returned to
the royal nursery, there to remain until
she was twelve years old. And although
the Prince Charming was not allowed
the privilege of taking his fair young
bride away with him, he was not allowed
to quit the country without signing set
tlement papers. A paltry fften hundred
pounds, or seventy-five hundred dollars,
a year he was to allow her for pocket
money. A dover in case of his death of
the equivalent of fifty Thousand dollars
year and guarantee of two residences
with full maintenance as soon as she
should go to Holland-that was the price
that the siXteen-year-old prince paid for
marrying a ten-year-old princess.
When she was twelve years old, and
had almost forgotten what the young
prince looked like, Mary was taken by
stalled in her new position. If one can
believe contemporary accounts, the little
princess was a child OF unusual ability.
1t is said that even at the age of twelve
she presided over her small court with
the greatest dignity and that she gave
audiences, received foreign bassadors
and fulfilled all the functions of state
quite as we'll as any mature woman
could have done.
Apparently she and her husband were
entirely devoted. The one little flaw in
the romance was that she. got on abomi-
nably with her mother-in-law. When
her husband died, eight years after she
went to him in Holland, this same
mother-in-law wanted to be appointed
guardian, for the heir who was born a
few months later. The mother-in-law
insisted that Mary was not of age. No
little. wrangling followed. but the fact
that Prince William had stipulated in his
will that Mary should be guardian for
her own child, was sufficient to settle
the matter.
1t was not until she was twenty-five
years old. however that she became fun
regent AS far as English history is con-
cerned of Mary Princess Royal and Will
lam Prince of Orange it is of far greater
Importance than it appears on the sur.
face, for 1t was the link between the
house of Stuart and the house of Orange
For their son was William who later
came to the throne of England partly by
virtue of his descent from the Stuart
king, Charles /