Prince Bismarck, however, set his face strongly against the match on the ground that it would impair the friendly relations between the Courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, Prince Alexander being for personal reasons an object of the most intense animosity to the late czar. Indeed, it was this hatred on the part of the late Emperor of Russia that had rendered it impossible for Prince Alexander to retain his throne of Bulgaria. Old Emperor William, supported his chancellor in the matter, and while the late Emperor Frederick, at that time merely crown prince, remained quite passive, the cause of Princess Victoria and Prince Alexander was strongly championed by Empress Frederick and Queen Victoria. The controversy continued even after the death of old Emperor William, and finally, in face of the persistent hostility in the matter displayed by Prince Bismarck, and by the present kaiser, it was arranged that the couple should be married, not in Germany, but in England, at Windsor Castle, and that they should make their home elsewhere than in Germany. This, however, did not meet the views of Prince Alexander, who thus saw all his ambition for a military career in the German army frustrated instead of promoted by the union. So at the very last moment, within a few days of the date appointed for the wedding at Windsor, and after all the trousseau had been purchased and the wedding presents bought, he deliberately jilted his royal fiancee, and married at Nice, an actress named Mlle. Lösinger, an offspring of the valet and the cook of the old Austrian General Faviani. The prince, it may be remembered, subsequently abandoned the title and status of a Prince Battenberg, secured the title of Count Hartenau from his father's old friend and comrade, the Emperor of Austria, as well as a colonelcy in the Austrian army, and died as major-general in command of a brigade at Gratz. It was more than a year after this, that Princess Victoria found a husband in the insignificant-looking and inoffensive Prince Adolph of Schaumburg-Lippe, son of Prince George of that ilk, the prince at that time serving as Captain of Hussars at Bonn. Soon afterwards, Emperor William learning that Prince Waldemar of Lippe was dying, took advantage of the fact that he was rather weak-minded to induce him to sign a species of will bequeathing the regency of the principality at his death to Prince Adolph of Schaumburg-Lippe, the next heir to the throne of Lippe; his brother Alexander of Lippe being an incurable lunatic. On the strength of this document, which was of a purely personal character, and which was neither ratified by the legislature of the principality of Lippe, nor recognized by the federal council of the German empire, Prince Adolph, with the assistance of a couple of Prussian regiments, coolly took possession of the principality of Lippe, proclaimed himself regent, and assumed the reins of government.