Victoria, Empress, consort of Frederick III, German Emperor, 1840-1901
It was on February 10, 1868, the anniversary of Queen Victoria's
wedding, and of the Crown Princess's christening, that another son was
born, who seemed sent to fill the terrible gap which the death of Prince
Sigismund had made two years before. The child was christened on the
King of Prussia's seventy-first birthday, at Berlin, receiving the names
of Joachim Frederick Ernest Waldemar. The Princess's fourth son was a
beautiful and clever child, and his death, which was to follow when he
was only eleven years old, was perhaps the deepest grief that fell on
his parents. It is significant that when the Emperor Frederick chose his
last resting-place, he desired to lie by the side of this child.
In the spring of 1868 the Crown Prince paid a visit to Italy in return
for the visit paid to Berlin by Prince Humbert the year before. The
Crown Princess did not go with him, but she followed with deep interest
and pleasure the accounts of his reception, which were remarkably
enthusiastic, and also politically useful, for it prevented the
accession to power of a Ministry hostile to Prussia.
In 1869 the Crown Princess received a long visit from Princess Alice at
Potsdam, and the two sisters spent their mother's birthday, May 24,
together. Princess Alice spoke in a letter to Queen Victoria of the
delightful life "with dear Vicky, so quiet and pleasant, which reminds
me in many things of our life in England in former happy days, and so
much that we had Vicky has copied for her children. Yet we both always
say to each other that no children were so happy, and so spoiled with
all the enjoyments and comforts children can wish for, as we were."
Again, on June 19, "Vicky was very low yesterday; she has been so for
the last week, and she told me much of what an awful time she went
through in 1866 when dear Siggie [Sigismund] died. The little chapel is
very peaceful and cheerful and full of flowers. We go there _en passant_
nearly daily, and it seems to give dear Vicky pleasure to go there."
The two sisters spent a happy time together at Cannes in the late autumn
of 1869, while their respective husbands were abroad. The Crown Prince,
with Prince Louis of Hesse, visited Vienna, Athens, Constantinople, and
the Holy Land, and went on thence to Port Said for the opening of the
Suez Canal. In Jerusalem the Crown Prince took formal possession in the
name of his father of the ruined convent of St. John, ceded by the
Sultan for the erection of a German Protestant Church. The two Princes
joined their wives at Cannes shortly before Christmas.
On their way home the Crown Prince and Princess spent a week in Paris,
staying at an hotel. The Crown Princess was surprised to see how changed
the Emperor Napoleon was since they had seen him last. She thought him
ailing and dejected. In the course of conversation, the Emperor
mentioned that he had a new Minister, a certain M. Ollivier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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