And the effort is much appreciated! it's so precious!
we will have a tibbit on my boy albert at some point?
The Last Hanover: The Life and Reign of Queen Charlotte
- Thread starter The_Most_Happy
- Start date
we will have a tibbit on my boy albert at some point?
Excellent! Many would also say that his real life counterpart is… well an experince
That makes sense!It's a decent mix between royalty, nobility, and commoners, I'd said. For example - Richard married a princess, his brother the Prince of Wales married a commoner, and his brother the Duke of York and his sister the Princess Royal married nobles.
There's just a lot more royals around ITTL since we butterflied away some major wars and everything
How come Richard is Duke of Gloucester if his uncle Alfred (also Duke of Gloucester) is still alive at the time of Anne’s birth in 1995?
... because I am stupid 😮💨 I'm sorry. I got my times messed up - I saw that Alfred was dead when the wedding rolled around and forgot how to math.
Richard is the Duke of Kent, Anne is Princess Anne of Kent, etc.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
Hold up, how is Eric XV a descendant of Gustav Vasa when the House of Bernadotte replaced Vasa as the Swedish royal family?
Great update as always. The Swedish culture boom is an amazing addition to this world, you are creating.
Or is it an alternative daughter of Empress Josephine?
Is this referencing Princess Joséphine Napoléonne de Beauharnais (1807–1876), wife of King Oscar I of Sweden, granddaughter of Empress Josephine via her son Eugène de Beauharnais, Duke of Leuchtenberg (1781–1824).
Or is it an alternative daughter of Empress Josephine?
Although the male line of house Vasa became extinct in 1672, the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, is descended from Gustav I through his paternal great-grandmother, Victoria of Baden, a descendant of Gustav I's great-great-grandson Adolphus Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
See below!
Thank you! 😊
Nope, it's Josephine de Beauharnais and a typo lol
And, as I found out during my research for this tidbit, they are also descended from the House of Vasa via Josephine de Beauharnais, who was a great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Catherine of Sweden, the daughter Charles IX of Sweden, via her mom Auguste of Bavaria!
One of the reasons i LOVE the house of Bernadotte! Charles XIV had one of the best rags to riches stories ever! Plues they are descendats not only from the Vasas but also josephine, the tru love of napoleon!
S P L E N D I D @The_Most_Happy . Loved it! loved it! loved it! On the edge of my seat about what else you have got cooking!
Excellent! Thanks for sharing this post!!!“Two records were broken and a third was honored in Sweden today when HM King Erik XV of Sweden married HRH Princess Anne of Kent, granddaughter of the current King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Earlier this year in June marked the 500-year anniversary of Gustav Vasa becoming the first King of an independent Sweden. Erik XV, a direct descendant of the King, is said to be an "avid historian" in his personal life and informed reporters that he and his bride are delighted to be able to have their own moment of history in the same year as this amazing anniversary for Sweden”. An original plan to hold the wedding on June 6th was apparently shelved in favor of the later date in order to allow the two events to each be celebrated ‘properly and with their own honor’.
This also marks the first marriage between a member of the Swedish and British royal houses since 1848, when Carl XV married the youngest daughter of Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom*.
The Anglo-Swedish cultural rivalry so well known to us today began with Carl XVI Oscar, the son of the aforementioned union. Carl XVI had an extremely complicated relationship with his mother, which in turn led to a complicated relationship with the land of her birth. A cultured man, deeply interested in the arts and sciences, he was "mortally offended", as he wrote to a friend "to be considered born of a Great Culture by being born to a British mother and not a Swedish father. Far too long, since the days of Napoleon!, have we allowed Sweden to lag behind in terms of literature, art, sciences - no more, I say! My children shall know they are children of culture for being children of Sweden."
From the Renaissance to the Carolean era, the four languages of culture could be considered Italian, French, German, and English. In the mid to late nineteenth century, however, Swedish began to rise to its current prominent place, thanks largely in part to the efforts of Carl XVI. While considered strict and temperate in his administration of the economy and the military, he was passionate in funding the arts and sciences, considering himself the successor in these efforts to Gustav III and Queen Luise Ulrika. He helped create scholarships to entice students and educators to Swedish universities, invested his private income into Swedish galleries and publishing houses, and personally paid to send promising artists abroad to study and further their skills. He funded the building of the new Swedish Royal Opera House and personally paid for over twenty new operas and ballets to be written, composed, and performed by Swedish musicians, choreographers, singers, and ballerinas. Opera singer Jenny Lind, persuaded to return to Sweden after living abroad for years by Carl XVI’s efforts, wrote that “Heaven has sent an angel of music and art to Sweden, and his name is Carl Oscar”.
His efforts have not gone in vain. The Operan, the Swedish Royal Opera House, is consistently rated as one of the most beautiful in both architecture and productions in the world. The Royal Ballet is considered one of the five finest. Membership in the Royal Academies is a fiercely coveted honor in academics, and many scholars willingly live in Sweden for the required ten years or more just in hope of achieving such an honor. Swedish literature, while never to replace that of English, French, German, or Italian, has risen to stand among them in terms of popularity and regard - who does not know Hanne Blom, Andrea Vång, or Stieg Larsson? Schools in other countries now regularly offer Swedish as a second language course alongside German, French, and English, and it becoming a hallmark of a good education to at least be conversational in Swedish.
Carl XVI also fought to protect traditional Swedish culture as well, after a particular gaffe from the King of France, who stated that “Of course it is a Frenchman to bring them culture”, a reference to Carl XVI’s Bernadotte ancestry. Carl XVI and his family regularly wore traditional Swedish clothing, and his wife re-popularized the nationalla dratken style for major events at court (a tradition that continues to this day). He insisted on traditional Swedish cuisine at every meal and only Swedish scholars, governors, and nannies were allowed to care for his children. In family meetings, he was said to be quite put out whenever he was forced to speak anything but Swedish, and he refused to speak English at all, deeply offending his British relatives.
Eric XV is also the first Swedish monarch to marry while ruling since Carl XVI, who did not marry until he was thirty-two, which is attributed partially to his parents' own marriage. One can attribute the great place of Sweden and her culture at least partially to the last British-Swedish royal union, leaving us wondering what shall be born from this one."
*It has come to the attention of this author that in the original publishing that Carl XVI Oscar's mother was referred to as Queen Charlotte’s youngest daughter. This is incorrect, as she was actually her second youngest daughter.
--- "Thoughts on the Royal Marriage" by Jennifer Klasson for the Stockholm Times (Online Edition), October 26, 2023There is always a sartorial scuffle at royal weddings, as each royal bride tries to claim the Magpie Bride of the Year award (obviously). The royal house of Britain, in particular, is known for its dramatic bridal ensembles. And, my darlings, Princess - now Queen! - Anne, did not disappoint. In fact, I think we might just have to call it here and now - the new Queen Anne of Sweden is Magpie Bride of the Year.
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But before the main course, we must, of course, have our appetizers - the Queen grandmothers, the mothers, and the maid of honor (don't worry darlings, all of the other glittering guests and royal relatives will be covered in the next post!). *The designers of the gowns were good sports and released images of the gowns shortly after the start of the wedding, which I deeply appreciate as it allows me to post in real-time!*
Starting with HM Queen Nathalie, the groom's grandmother. She's no slouch when it comes to events like these, having access to both her own personal jewels (inherited from her own glorious magpie mother) and the treasure chest that is the Swedish royal vault. In honor of the event, she decided to whip out an oldie but a goodie: the Cameo parure. Originally made for Empress Josephine of France, it was passed down to her granddaughter, another Josephine, who became the Queen of Sweden and Norway. It is made of seed pearls set into red gold and topped with cameos, and includes a tiara, a necklace, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, and a brooch, all with pearls and cameos. The ‘main’ cameo in the tiara is carved with Venus and Cupid, while the others feature other mythological scenes and figures. It's been passed from Queen to Queen since then (it really is too much of a big-gun to waste on a princess) and is a favorite of Queen Nathalie, who, bless her, wore every bit of it today. The parure was nicely shown off by Nathalie’s rose gold A-line gown with elbow length sleeves.
Our very own fellow magpie, Her Marvelous Majesty, Queen Alexandra, grandmother to the bride, is next. For those of you betting that she would wear Queen Charlotte's emerald parure, you get a shiny gold star. Everyone got the memo on parures with romantic ties, apparently. For those of you who don’t know, the parure was a gift to Queen Charlotte from her husband the Prince Consort, and one of her most treasured sets. It now belongs to the Royal Trust and has been a favorite of Queen Alexandra for years now - she prefers to wear it to weddings and last wore it to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 2019. It paired perfectly with her sage satin and chiffon tiered gown, which I must admit threw me for a loop as Alexandra typically prefers more dramatic colors and fabrics. Once I saw the rest of the family / bridal party / the bride, however, everything became clear.
Obviously I am inclined towards Alexandra, but Nathalie definitely came to play. Who do you think won Glam-mother of the Wedding?
Next, we have the mother of the groom, the former Crown Princess Helena, currently Baroness von Buxhoeveden. For those of you who don't know, five years after the death of her first husband, the Crown Prince, Helena married Baron Mattias von Buxhoeveden. Now, on paper, her royal in-laws were supportive of this marriage, and attended the wedding and included the couple in events and so on; however, it must be noted that this remarriage has put something of a kibosh on Helena borrowing jewels from the royal family vault. Therefore her options are rather limited to her family tiaras and the tiaras from her husband's family (her son becoming King has apparently not allowed her back into the vaults, which says a lot if you ask me). She decided upon her husband’s family’s small diamond coronet tiara, about which the nicest thing I can say is it is a tiara with diamonds (her mother-in-law, also invited, flashed their much larger ruby tiara). She also wore some sapphire and diamond earrings that were a gift from the aforementioned husband. Again, they're diamonds, which is something, I suppose.
Helena wore an ice blue draped silk off-the-shoulder gown, which - while appropriate - didn’t exactly dazzle. According to one royal source, Helena isn’t a fan of her new daughter-in-law, and wanted her husband to marry his former girlfriend, Princess Maria da Gloria of Brazil (and yes, we will be covering the scrap of fabric that Maria da Gloria decided constituted a dress suitable to wear to a wedding). Apparently, Helena would prefer a daughter-in-law who lets Mummy Darling call the shots, rather the spirited Anne who calls her own. Maybe she was hoping to get back into the jewel vault that way? I, for one, am going to be forced to name Helena the Wren of the Wedding (dullest dressed, if you’re new here). It was obvious she did not want to be there, which hurts my heart as I would've happily taken her spot if she'd only bothered to let me know.
The mother of the bride, the Duchess of Kent, born Princess Emma of Hesse, however, does have access to several treasure chests: the Brits, the Hessians, and her own. Now, there was a bit of a debate on if Anne or her sister Louise would borrow one of her tiaras (and I'm not telling until the end!), which put a little more fun in guessing what Emma would wear. First of all, let me say that Emma and her mother-in-law obviously had a "gorgeous, shiny, go-big-or-go-home jewels" conference before this wedding and honestly, bless them for it. Following the romantic theme in tiaras set by the royal grandmothers, Emma wore her Aquamarine and Diamond tiara, which was gifted to her by her parents for her own wedding in 1992. This absolutely stunning bandeau alternates aquamarine oval clusters with diamond myrtle leaves (a traditional wedding bouquet flower) and is bordered with circular cut diamonds. There was a lot of buzz regarding Anne wearing this tiara herself, so I must say I was fairly shocked to see Emma step out in it (with her matching aquamarine and diamond stud earrings and diamond rivière necklace on-loan from her mother-in-law). The jewels flawlessly matched her pale blue off-the-shoulder puff sleeve gown with gold detailing. Since Helena declined to even attempt to play in our game, I’m going to toss Emma into the big girls category -
The bride's younger sister, Louise, served as her maid of honor. A magpie in the making, she managed to work around the traditional Swedish practice of 'no tiaras for the attendants' (a pox on that whole practice, I say) by wearing a gorgeous green enameled bandeau with cut amethysts (a gift from her paternal grandparents) and a pair of amethyst and pearl earrings borrowed from her maternal grandmother, the Electress of Hesse (if these earrings look familiar, it’s because we’ve covered them before! They originally belonged to Princess Elisa of Prussia, an ancestress of Anne and Louise via their mother). She wore a mint green feather and jewel embroidered capelet gown and looked absolutely gorgeous in it. I still regret the lack of a tiara, however, but she definitely delivered on the dress and what jewels she wore. If this is a taste of her style to come, I am absolutely here for it.
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(And just so no one can say I skipped the rest of the bridal party -
The best man was Emil von Rothstein, the groom’s best friend. He wore a Swedish military uniform. And no jewels.
The child bridesmaids were Miss Honor Bassett, Miss Nicola Bassett, Princess Charlotte of York (all cousins of the bride); Miss Sienna Craig (the bride's goddaughter); Countess Gabriella Oxenstierna (the groom's niece); and Princess Anna of Norway (the groom's goddaughter). The pageboys were Baron Axel von Buxhoeveden (the groom's step-nephew); Count Karl Oxenstierna (the groom's nephew); Prince Welf of Hanover (the groom’s nephew); and Mr. Jack Fisher (the bride's godson).
They were very cute. They wore no jewels. I am moving on.)
And now, magpies, the moment you have all been waiting for: the bride.
Anne wore an off-the-shoulder puff sleeve cream-colored ball gown that was heavily embroidered with flowers and butterflies, custom made by her friend fashion designer Elissa Craig. I am told that these are flowers and butterflies native to England, Scotland, Ireland, Malta, Australia, and Sweden, which is both clever and stunning. Her veil was the traditional lace veil of the British royal family (4 meters of handmade Irish lace detailed with the royal symbols of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales - a totally normal family heirloom that just anyone has lying around).
But her jewels - oh, her jewels. Romantic. Historic. Stunning. They hit all the notes.
The bride wore a turquoise and diamond parure gifted to her as a wedding present by her grandmother, Queen Alexandra. This parure was apparently specifically set aside for the bride by her paternal great-grandmother and namesake, Queen Anne (born The Hon. Anne Fitzgerald-Fitzclarence), in her will. The O.G. Queen Anne received the set as a wedding present from the Prince of Wales when they married in 1929. The groom specifically designed the tiara, earrings, necklace, and brooches for his bride, selecting turquoise because he believed that it matched the color of his bride’s eyes.
If he says he loves you but he is not custom designing a parure with jewels specifically to match your eyes, does he really love you?
(Here is a picture of the original Queen Anne wearing the parure)
Best wishes and shiny things to the happy couple! Come back tomorrow when we dissect - ahem, I mean discuss - the rest of the wedding guests!
~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~“HM Erik XV Carl Johan Gustaf Micael Artur, The King of Sweden was born on July 13, 1992 in Stockholm to Crown Prince Johan Gustaf of Sweden, Duke of Skåne, and Helena Maria Lillemor de Wendel as their second child and eldest son (his two sisters are Princess Josefine, Countess Oxenstierna, and Eleonora, Princess Georg of Hanover). He was titled ‘Prince Erik of Sweden, Duke of Duke of Jämtland’ at his birth. His godparents included the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway, the Marquês de Soveral (his maternal uncle by marriage), Princess Eugenie of Sweden (his paternal aunt); the Duc de Navarre (his father’s cousin); and Olivia Severim de Noronha (a friend of his mother’s). He was raised primarily in Stockholm with his two sisters. His father died in a driving accident when Erik was seven; his mother remarried five years later.
After performing his year of military service in the Swedish navy, Erik attended Lund University, where he received a Master’s degree in Economics. He ascended to the throne when he was twenty-five, following the death of his grandfather, the King.
Erik is fluent in Swedish, German, English, and Portuguese, his mother’s first language. He is an accomplished sailor, having sailed for the Swedish Olympic team when he was twenty, and amateur photographer.”
-Excerpt from the Wikipedia page of Erik XV, The King of Sweden
HM Anne, The Queen of Sweden (born HRH Princess Anne Elizabeth Melita of Kent) was born on January 23, 1995 in Malta to Prince Richard, The Duke of Kent, the youngest son of the current King William V, and Princess Emma of Hesse. She was named for her paternal great-grandmother, whose birthday she shares; her maternal grandmother; and for the place of her birth. She is known to intimates as ‘Melita’. Her godparents were the Queen of Greece (a paternal cousin), the Prince of Wales (her paternal uncle), the Hereditary Elector of Hesse (her maternal uncle), and Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Aleksandrovna of Russia (a maternal cousin).
The eldest of her parents’ two daughters, Anne was raised between Malta, Canberra, Sydney, and London due to her father’s naval career and repeated terms as the Governor-General of Australia. She attended the University of Melbourne where she received a bachelor’s degree with honors in Plant Sciences before transferring to the University of Manchester, where she earned a doctorate in Plant Sciences. Anne is known for her interests in sailing, gardening, and animal rescues, having been a founding member of the Melbourne Animal Aide Society (MAAS). She and the King currently have four dogs - two rescued greyhounds named Rocket and Flash, a rescued terrier mix named Ragnar, and a rescued small mutt named Thorvald.
Erik and Anne met in 2019 at the Match Cup Sweden tournament in Marstrand, having been introduced by mutual friends, and became engaged in 2022 - the King proposed with an Australian opal engagement ring. They were married in Stockholm on October 26, 2023. The bride wore a custom-made Elissa Craig wedding gown and the Queen Anne Turqoiuse Parure.”
-Excerpt from the Wikipedia page of Queen Anne of Sweden~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~
Hope you guys enjoyed this! Once again, I will do my best to get an update out ASAP! Love you guys!
Chapter 20
Depiction of the founding of The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick on March 17, 1783 in the Great Hall of Dublin Castle
Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent is also departing, albeit unwillingly. The week before her aunt’s Irish tour, she comes down with typhoid. Charlotte is naturally sympathetic to her niece and does not wish to send her away, but she cannot delay her journey to nurse Drina, nor can she allow Drina to remain in the nursery with her own children where she could easily infect them. (Since Alexander’s bout with meningitis, Charlotte has become frantic at the idea of the children becoming ill). Unfortunately for Drina, her options for caretakers are somewhat limited: the Romneys have already fled back to Lamb House in Rye to protect Augustus’ failing health from Drina’s infection; the Cambridges are still in Hanover; the Foxes (the Hon. Henry Fox and Charlotte’s cousin, the former Augusta d’Este) have young children of their own and Augusta is heavily pregnant; and the Fitzclarences (Adolphus and Marsali) have a new baby - and Marsali has a dim view towards Drina's dramatics. Finally, it is decided that Drina will be sent to Cumberland Lodge to stay with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and recover there.
This decision is met with particular distress by the young patient, who cries horribly for her mother and begs Charlotte to allow her to come to England. Drina herself will later record this instance as one “which devastated my faith in any love my aunt had for me - what cruelty to deny so ill a child her own loving mother” (this statement will later become painfully ironic to Drina’s own children). What she does not know and will not know for years is that Charlotte has been writing to Victoire, offering to pay her passage and allow her to come to England to stay at Cumberland Lodge with Drina and nurse her back to health. Victoire, however, refuses to allow her child to be treated in England or by English doctors - she is still fully convinced that her son Edward’s death was at the hands of England - and instead insists upon Drina being sent to Coburg, where Victoire will oversee her recovery. Drina, barely strong enough to survive the move to Cumberland Lodge, remains in England. (The story Drina is later told by her mother is that Charlotte refused to allow Victoire to nurse her daughter as she felt fit, which while being true is also leaving out a great deal of information). The Sussexes do their best for young Drina, who will remember them fondly for the rest of her life. In truth, they will eventually become the only members of the British royal family that Drina has any fond feelings for [1]. The whole event, however, firmly increases Drina’s fear of abandonment and firm belief that illness is the precursor to exile.
With Drina unwillingly situated, Charlotte and her family depart on their grand tour. An itinerary has finally been settled upon: Charlotte and her family travel northwest and up into Liverpool, where they will spend a week before traveling onward to Dublin, then traveling to Belfast, Galway, and Cork with a return to Dublin before sailing back. Leopold is particularly interested in examining the shipyards and the new Liverpool and Manchester railway [2]. Charlotte is looking forward to investigating the living conditions and opportunities for charity work among the residents, particularly women in an 'unfortunate' line of work and their children. The sputtered protests from various council members that a Queen should not concern herself with such people is met with a bright smile, a hard stare, and a reply that a mother who does not attend to all of her children is a poor one indeed, and surely the Honorable Gentlemen would never mean to imply that Charlotte herself is a poor mother to any of her people. A few brave ones continue to push on that it is an inappropriate interaction for a married woman; the husband of the aforementioned married woman masterfully chimes in that he fully supports his wife in any interest of hers related to helping her people. The Honorable Gentlemen quickly back down, and Charlotte proceeds merrily on her own way.
“It is becoming rapidly apparent,” Lord Grey writes to his daughter Louisa, a lady-in-waiting of Charlotte’s, “that she shall do as she feels necessary, and the world shall fall in line. It would be damnably annoying if she wasn’t so very good at it all [being Queen]”.
With the Royal Progress being such a grand undertaking, Charlotte is determined to keep her company as small as possible to allow more ease of travel - in addition to eight of her nine children, she will bring Baron and Baroness Stockmar; The Hon. Adolphus Fitzclarence as her aide-de-camp; Lady Burghesh and Lady Caroline MacDonnell as her ladies; and two nurses, graduates from her governess school, for the younger children. She also invites Mary, the wife of Daniel O’Connell, the Lord of Derrynane and Charlotte’s advisor for Irish affairs, to join them on their tour once they land in Ireland. It’s a rollicking, high-spirited group that sets out for Liverpool from Windsor - and while Charlotte will later write to Auntie Fred that the journey was “great fun”, Leopold will later ascribe the multiple days in the carriage as the birth of his interest in the railways. After three days, the royal party arrives in Liverpool and settles into Speke Hall, on loan from the Watt family - young Fred is deeply interested in the architecture and history of the place and spends most of his time interrogating the staff for information.
Charlotte is more interested in Liverpool itself, particularly in a certain doctor practicing there. Oh, don’t worry - she’s not pregnant (she and Leopold have decided against going for her grandmother’s record, and feel that nine is the perfect number). The obstetrician in question is Dr. William Austin, who was adopted by Charlotte’s mother Caroline shortly after his birth in 1802; rumor has it that he is actually Caroline’s son by a footman, ‘adopted’ to preserve a sheen of propriety. When Austin and Charlotte last met in 1814, she dismissed him as a spoiled, sickly favorite of her mother’s - this description might have been slightly colored by ‘sibling’ rivalry. In 1820, he had begun his studies at Oxford, keeping a relatively low profile [3] - and Charlotte had enough going on that neither of them felt any need to pursue any interactions. Following Caroline’s death in 1830, Charlotte instructed Stockmar to see that Austin’s portion of the estate was settled fairly on him and that he was strictly instructed not to presume any familiarity with the new Queen, who did not wish a relationship with him. Austin obliged and eventually moved to Liverpool, where he settled into a practice deemed "more charitable than solvent", finding patients among the low women and children of the city. Enough time has passed, with Austin showing himself to be an honorable gentleman and respectful of his Queen's wishes, and his work among the poor garnering such interest, that Charlotte has decided to meet with him.
The meeting goes surprisingly well. Charlotte finds Austin to be “modest, plain, thoughtful, and good” and she is very impressed with his practice - though an obstetrician by training, he has become something of a specialist in venereal diseases, thanks to his clientele, and is even in contact with other doctors regarding diseases of the mind, another unfortunate reality of his patients. His two nurses are former fallen women, educated and employed by their savior, and he is currently attempting this with a third, a scheme that interests Charlotte greatly - there is a startlingly lack of well-trained nurses (or even badly trained nurses) [4] and even Charlotte admits that training former prostitutes to serve as governesses in well-to-do households is a bit too much. Leopold is wary of Austin at first, suspecting the man wants money or to presume upon his connection with Charlotte, but is forced to admit in a letter to his sister Sophie that he is “a rather honorable man... terrible business sense, gives away everything but the shirt off his back, but a better heart than most men I can think of”.
Having excused themselves from the good doctor’s office -Gilly having had her fill of obstetricians and the disappointment always brought to her by them-, Gilly and Stockmar instead decide to stroll the streets of Liverpool in an attempt to get a ‘real’ view for their Queen. Near the doctor’s office, they come upon a very young girl - three years old, at most - selling posies with a small baby in a rush basket next to her. As Stockmar bends down to speak to the young girl, he feels a small bump at his side. When he looks up, he sees his wife with her hand tightly holding the shoulder of a lanky boy around ten years old, keen on getting away with Stockmar’s wallet (Gilly, for all her fine placement in life now, grew up in a less than civilized area of London, and has not lost her keen observation or quick reflexes). At this moment, another girl, perhaps eight or so, appears from around the corner with a loaf of bread and some milk - she immediately rushes to her brother and attempts to free him from Gilly’s grasp, causing quite a scene, leading the two little girls to both begin wailing on top of the noise. Years in the Hanover-Coburg nursery have desensitized Gilly to such things as tears and tantrums, however - snapping at the elder children to behave with the sense that the Good Lord gave them, she produces a sweet from her handbag to hand over to the toddler (without letting go of her grip on the boy) and instructs her husband to pick up the baby to cease it’s crying. Stockmar, in awe of his wife’s authority, does so, albeit rather awkwardly. Giving the boy a good shake, Gilly goes on to demand an explanation. She would later write in her memoirs that:
“The young lad turned his dirty face to me and attempted an angelic look. “Missus, t’was an accident, honest-” he began to protest. Dark haired, blue eyed, and handsome under the dirt on his face, it was clear that this had worked for him before. I could not help but laugh as his sister began upon a similar vein, insisting her poor brother had only fallen and bumped my husband as she attempted to pull him from me. “It is Madame, you little heathen - and don’t even start, you’ve got quite enough trouble as is without adding lying to your sins. Now. My husband will be taking his money back.”, I informed them rather smartly”.
Surprised both by her status and her accent (it slips out when she’s angry), the boy grudgingly hands over the wallet. Further interrogation reveals that his name is Richard Drake and the three girls are his sisters - Hermione, Rosamund, and Cordelia [5]. His mother is ‘around’ (he refuses to elaborate further, not that Gilly requires it - it’s obvious as to his mother’s profession and lack of money, given the children’s state) and his father is or was a sailor, his state of living being unsure. Handing the baby to his wife, Stockmar begins to speak to Richard himself and persuades the youth to bring his sisters and himself to Dr. Austin’s offices with them for some tea.Upon arriving at Dr. Austin’s office, it becomes clear that he knows the children, their mother having been his patient in the past. Gilly sits down to tea with the children, ensuring that they eat and drink their fill. Pulling aside Stockmar, Austin informs him that the children’s mother, Jane Drake, is a prostitute who is “far gone with sickness, madness, and drink”. Born the daughter of a respected schoolmaster, she ran away from home at fifteen with a sailor named Francis Drake [6] and after a quick trip to Gretna Green, the two eventually settled in Liverpool. The sailor is presumed dead after some misadventures in the Caribbean (two guesses as to who he served under), and Jane has been supporting herself and the children in the oldest of professions for several years now. It must be noted that for the last few years, Richard and Hermione have been doing most of the supporting, through begging, odd jobs, and thievery. Dr. Austin confesses that he is afraid of what will become of the children when their mother inevitably passes - they will most likely be sent to an orphanage and separated. After a moment, Stockmar scribbles out a short letter before giving it to Dr. Austin, stating that should their mother pass or feel herself unable to care for the children, he and his wife would be honored to take them into their home, being unable to have children themselves. Dr. Austin promises to inform him as soon as he knows anything.
Charlotte, Leopold, and the Stockmars return to their lodgings and spend the next few days continuing to tour Liverpool - Leopold spends hours touring the railway offices and station, determined not to leave without a plan for a railway from London to Windsor and to Claremont (just to start, of course). Charlotte gives the mayor a ‘merry time’, insisting on going everywhere and seeing everything during the day before sitting down to a formal supper with ‘everyone’ (all the high and mighty of Liverpool) each night. The children alternate between spending the days with their mother or their father and are commanded by Gilly that they must (excepting little Caro and Hal) report three interesting things they saw or learned to her at the end of each day.
The royal party departs with all pomp and circumstance on the royal yacht, HMY Doucement, for Dublin on January 18. Upon arriving the next day in Dublin, they are greeted with more of the same by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Henry Paget, the Marquess of Anglesey, and the Irish council. Charlotte manages the thinnest layer of civility to Anglesey, whom she considers little better than a bully and a rogue - and a champion of her father's attempt to divorce her mother. Anglesey, himself a strong personality who doesn't fear other strong personalities, takes her obvious dislike in his famous stride. He worked under Wellington at Waterloo and seduced the same man's sister-in-law [7]; Anglesey is confident he can manage being disliked by Charlotte. And despite her personal feelings, she is forced to admit that he is rather good at being Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and his politics in this area align nicely with her own. But she refuses to like him.
While the children and belongings go onto Leinster House (generously loaned to Charlotte and Leopold for their stay by her dear friend, the Duke of Leinster), Charlotte and Leopold continue on into Dublin Castle, where they are introduced to more people, including the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and the various wives of the council members. At the end of the introductions, Charlotte turns to Anglesey and famously informs him to “gather my men, my lord - I aim to finish well what others began.” She arranges a meeting of the full Irish council for the next morning with such grace and force that Anglesey, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, will later write that he found her “the greatest general of my acquaintance, God help us all”. That evening, Charlotte and Leopold dine quietly with Anglesey and his wife, another Charlotte (it’s about as awkward as one would expect it to be, given all the history that comes with the Angleseys), before returning to Leinster House to rest.
A quick recap on the Irish situation: at the beginning of the short-lived Tithe War, Charlotte and her government decided to try a conciliatory arrangement after centuries of failed coercive measures and cut the tithes in half and added the remainder to rents, which are then paid to landlords who then pay the tithes themselves. And, despite popular belief against it, it worked. The Anglican Church gets their tithes. The government doesn’t look like a fool battling Irish peasants. Irish Catholics can continue more or less ignoring the Anglican church. Nobody’s really happy, but that’s the hallmark of a successful compromise, isn’t it? To continue upon this theme, after cycling through several Secretaries for Ireland, Lord Grey and Charlotte believe they have found a winning candidate - John Talbot, The Earl of Shrewsbury and Waterford. Shrewsbury is the hereditary Lord High Steward of Ireland (a privilege held by his family since the 15th century), the premier Earl of England, and a practicing Catholic - Charlotte’s hoping that these last two traits will help still wagging tongues on both sides on the issue. He’s also known for a charitable soul, having financed schools, churches, and even a hospital complex. He and Anglesey, Charlotte is confident, will work well together in keeping Ireland on the conciliatory path she and her government are determined upon.
Shrewsbury’s appointment is confirmed at the meeting of the Irish government the next day and is met with general approval. Even Anglesey, never known for keeping opinions to himself, agrees that it’s a good appointment, declaring it “rather clever”. (Shrewsbury himself is quite pleased to be in a position to aide better unity between his two identities - British and Catholic - but is rather sad to have left his beloved Midlands). Shrewsbury’s appointment is not Charlotte’s only announcement, however. She is also planning to expand the Order of Saint Patrick, Ireland’s answer to the Order of the Garter, and oversee the new appointments herself in St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Saint Patrick’s Day as the glorious end of her Irish tour. This inspires more commentary than Shrewsbury’s appointment. Leading questions include:
- Who is going to be admitted? - Anglesey and Shrewsbury, of course, as well as Lord Derrynane, the Duke of Leinster, and other leading Irish peers who are not currently members. Leopold will also be admitted as a royal prince (her sons will not be admitted until they reach their majority).
- How many knights will now be allowed? - Charlotte will be increasing the number from twenty (which her father himself raised from the original fifteen) to thirty-four, in honor of her age upon her accession.
- Is Charlotte, not a knight herself, really going to preside over the ceremony? - Yes. She’s the Sovereign of the Order, and she's going to do what all the previous male sovereigns have done and charge the Grand Master (Anglesey) to create the knights in her name and then accept their pledges of fealty. She’s also going to donate a new jeweled badge and star for the Grand Master, set with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds from her own inheritance.
After those two rather big pieces of information, the rest of the meeting goes on rather smoothly, and Charlotte feels rather confident that she and her government in Ireland are, if not quite on the same page, at least reading from the same book now. Charlotte spends the next three days touring Dublin with her children and her new Secretary, Shrewsbury - they tour factories and worker’s houses, lay foundation stones for schools, and visit churches (Charlotte goes to the Church of Ireland, while Shrewsbury and his wife attend to the Catholic churches). Each night, she attends supper at the home of a different local noble or bigwig, where she “charmingly and ruthlessly grounds down any opposition, firmly convinced in her own brilliance and so pleasingly that one cannot help but give in” as one supper host will later record.
It’s not all sunshine and shamrocks, of course - the tensions are still very much present. On January 23rd, Charlotte’s last day in Dublin, while laying a foundation stone for a new school, attended by Leopold, O’Connell, Anglesey, Adolphus Fitzclarence, and Shrewsbury, an incident occurs. A young man in the crowd begins shouting about the treachery of English overlords, the shame of allowing themselves to be ruled by such a creature as an English woman who shall poison the minds of their children, and that he shall be the one to strike back and lead the way forward to a new gloriously free Ireland - all while brandishing a pistol. The crown descends into hysteria, shoving and pushing and screaming, while the young man rushes forward, aiming the pistol directly for Charlotte.
O’Connell, Anglesey, and Shrewsbury attempt to surround Charlotte but are swept away by the crowd.
Fitzclarence is knocked down and trampled, but still begins to crawl towards the gunman.
Leopold shields Charlotte with his body and covers her as they are knocked to the ground and a shot goes off.
When the smoke clears, the scene is revealed. Fitzclarence tackled the young man to the ground, which caused him to fire off a shot harmlessly into the sky - the young man was left with a heavy concussion and a black eye (don’t ask how that happened) and Fitzclarence with a dislocated shoulder. Shrewsbury, Anglesey and O’Connell are bruised and sore (and, in the case of Anglesey, furious to have missed ‘all the fun’). Leopold has strained his back rather badly and suffered some scrapes and bruises; Charlotte has a ringing headache from hitting her head, and some significant bruises on her back and a cut across her cheek. The young man, still shouting, is apprehended and taken into custody by the police, and a silent crowd gathers around the royal couple. All is silent and still until an old woman comes out of the crowd and hands Charlotte a wet handkerchief to wash her face with, and a kindly whispered “There, there, my lady”. This simple gesture is enough to bring a slight smile to Charlotte’s face as she takes the handkerchief, whispers her thanks, and cleans her face. After being helped to her feet by Leopold and Anglesey, there is a fiercely whispered debate in which the men try to convince Charlotte to leave and return to Leicester House to rest and recover. “Recover?” she asks brightly, forcing a beaming smile on her face as she waves to the crowd. “Gentlemen, I have not yet begun.”
Charlotte finishes out the ceremony and even mingles with the crowd afterwards, thanking the old woman personally for the loan of a handkerchief and speaking to several of the children who shall attend the school. “Her nerves were of absolute steel,” Shrewsbury will later record, “and her courage matchless”. The only outward sign of her distress by the day was that neither Charlotte nor Leopold appears at the public farewell supper planned for them by the Angleseys. Leopold will later record in his private records that she spent the night shaking and in tears, withdrawing into their private room and refusing to see anyone except him. “My poor dear girl, her poor tender heart - this is a blow that wounds her deeply”. By the next morning, Charlotte has recovered enough of her nerve to appear smiling in public (Leopold will continue to record for many months episodes of “nervousness and tears [in private], flinching in crowds, startling at loud noises” [8]), as she and her family begin their journey to County Down, to spend several quiet days with the Marquess of Downshire at his country estate, Hillsborough Castle.
Downshire is an important ally for Charlotte in her Irish goals, being a supporter of the Irish language, the president of the Gaelic society, and the Lord Lieutenant of County Down. They share a mutual friend in Prime Minister Grey and originally began writing to each other as a way for Charlotte to practice her Irish. Her four days at Hillsborough go a long way to soothing Charlotte’s nerves, excepting the part where it seems that every man she has ever interacted with is trying to convince her to cancel the rest of the tour, or at least the part where she travels to the strongly Irish nationalist city of Cork. Anglesey and Shrewsbury both attempt to convince her to curtail her tour (neither wanting to be the man in office when the monarch gets assassinated in the country they’re supposed to be running - in addition to personal fondness for Charlotte, of course), while Lord Grey sends a special messenger with a letter begging her to see sense and leave Ireland altogether. She point-blank refuses all requests, insisting on following the plan to the letter rather than “shame her people for having a coward for a Queen”. In front of others, Leopold fully agrees with Charlotte’s position, but his private records will later reveal that he was deeply concerned for her safety and after a huge row with her regarding continuing the tour, devoted all of his stay at Hillsborough to frantically attempting to arrange police presence at every public appearance.
By the time that Charlotte and her entourage settle into Stormont Castle (on loan from the Cleland family) in Belfast on February 2nd, Leopold has managed to arrange a security detail that almost suits him. It also helps that news has reached him that the young man - James “Cian” Carran - has been declared insane by two different doctors, who are recommending placement in an institution over imprisonment. Leopold will write to his brother Ferdinand that “It is a comfort to Chérie [Charlotte] that the young man has been found insane, as we had suspected he would be - to know that his words were the rantings of a mad man and had no meaning, no following behind them, that he simply latched onto her as a handy goddess to build a myth around. It has removed many of our fears and truthfully allows me to let her continue this journey”.
[Carran dies in the institution in 1850, sixteen years after he was originally declared insane. In 1938, descendants of Carran’s sister Ailís Carran O’Hearn, brought suit against the government for Carran stating that the royal family arranged for the unlawful imprisonment of Carran. The suit argued that Carran was declared insane based on testimony from two physicians known to be employed occasionally by Anglesey, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and that no independent, ‘unaffiliated’ examination was ever performed. The suit referenced a letter to Anglesey from Leopold, the Prince Consort, stating that “it would be better, of course, for him to be declared mad, as the rantings of the mad can be ignored and no saints made of them by others'', and argued that this was obviously a royal command for Carran to be found insane in order to protect Charlotte’s mentality as the ‘savior of Ireland’. Finally, the family delivers journals, supposedly belonging to Carran, to the court - the journals are certainly anarchist in their view, but clearly written and obviously well-thought out, hardly the ravings of a mad man. After dragging on for two years, the suit is dismissed by the courts, as the evidence is circumstantial at best and anyone who could be questioned long since deceased. The suit does some harm to the popularity of the royal family in Ireland and the Independent Ireland political party adopts a new nickname for themselves following the whole affair, in favor of their new ‘patron mad man’ as one wit calls him: the Carrans.]
With genuine affection for their brave Queen (and yes, a slight wariness of her new police presence), the people of Belfast welcome Charlotte warmly and her visit goes very well - she engages cheerfully in the usual rounds of public appearances, dinners, dances, laying foundation stones and so on. She and Leopold are even persuaded by Downshire (who joined them in Belfast with his own family as a show of support) to allow their children to attend a meeting of the Ulster Gaelic Society with them - Missy will later write to George that the meeting was “great fun, with singing Gaelic songs and dancing reels - Downshire about whirled Mama off her feet!”. As their week in Belfast ends and the royal party sets off to their next destination, the carriages are farewelled from the crowded streets with cries of “God Bless our Bonnie Queen!”
Three more days in the carriage firmly cement Leopold’s newest scheme - to build railways in Britain, and if the government won’t do it, he’ll see it done as a ‘private’ citizen. (How private of a private citizen the spouse of a monarch can choose to be is a hotly debated concept for years to come). He’s been filling in rather regularly for Augustus d’Este on the East India board, and he’s learned all sorts of handy little tricks and tips for getting around pesky little things like naysayers and the government - and he's not afraid to use it [9]. Leopold makes plans to get in touch with the L&M Railway as soon as they return to Liverpool and begins sketching out a master plan. He even gets Daniel O’Connell involved (even these two cannot discuss only politics for three straight days) and sparks an interest in O’Connell for railways in Ireland by promising support for the proposed Limerick to Waterford railway [10] and beyond.
The party arrives at Westport House, County Mayo, the country home of the Marquess of Sligo, just before everyone gets sick of the idea of railways. Howe Browne, the Marquess, and his wife Hester are present to greet the royals - the Sligos are another set of important allies for Charlotte, in Ireland and beyond. They are known for being abolitionists in regard to slavery and heavily involved in charity work (the Marchioness is a patron of the Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic women’s institute devoted to care and education of the poor, particularly women), as well as very cultured and respected both in Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Their eighth child and youngest daughter, Emily Charlotte, is also a goddaughter of Charlotte’s [11]. Charlotte and her government have plans for the Marquess - namely, to see him as the Governor in Jamaica as the government begins its abolition of slavery [12]. Her visit here is intended to bolster his acceptance of the position, as well as make clear the expectations of herself and the government. By the end of her three days stay, Charlotte is even more certain the appointment is the correct one, writing to Lord Grey “it is marvelous indeed to know that we have retained the best man for the job, and gives such ease to the nerves regarding the whole endeavor”.
On February 17, Charlotte and her party arrive in Galway, in the province of Connaught, once the seat of the High Kings of Ireland. This is the beginning of the more delicate part of the tour, considering that the west of Ireland is the least influenced by the English (there’s a reason James II landed in Connaught during the Williamite War in 1689 - Galway in particular was a staunch Jacobite supporter during this time). On her first proper day in Galway, Charlotte insists on presenting a speech before the public - in Gaelic. Like anyone who has learned a language as an adult, Charlotte’s fluency is not exact nor is her grammar. Her words are very formal, her sentences rather short. In an effort to avoid an English accent in her Gaelic, she has adopted a rather odd cross between a Gaelic and a German accent when speaking Gaelic (she is noted for having the same accent when speaking Welsh and Scots, and her daughter Lolly will later be derided for speaking Dutch with a similarly mishmashed accent). Everyone in the royal party - from Leopold down to the newly assigned private policeman devoted to Charlotte’s security - waits with bated breath to see how the speech will go over - will the people be offended or impressed by the Queen’s effort? After a long moment of silence at the end of the speech (made touchingly poignant when Charlotte - inadvertently - changes from the royal ‘we’ to the more personal ‘I’), the crowd makes their decision. Cheers ring through the streets, along with shouts of “Ár mBanríon!” (“Our Queen” in Irish). It is the high note of the stay in Galway - the rest is pleasantly mundane, with visits to hospitals and schools, dinner with local dignitaries, and an excursion to Dunguaire Castle, the seat of the Kings of Connaught. By the time Charlotte departs on February 22nd, it’s apparent that she is a conquering Queen indeed.
“By God, she might just do it,” O’Connell writes to Patrick Lalor from the carriage as he travels with the party to the next stop, his own home of Derrynane House, “She might just make Queen’s men of us all.”
Derrynane House was built in the 1700s by Daniel O’Connell’s grandparents and expanded by the baron himself in 1825. Seated on almost 300 acres along the Kerry coastline, it might not be especially grand, but it immediately charms Charlotte and her family. Allowing herself a respite from the tour, Charlotte informs O’Connell that she will see no one during this stay, aside from his own dear family, and that she will hear no talk of politics - a devastating blow to O’Connell, who was thrilled at the idea of having the Queen all to himself and his politics for several days. However, to his great credit, he takes her request in stride. O’Connell arranges long walks through the grounds and down to the beach to hunt for shells. His youngest child, Daniel, is a happy companion to the royal children, and leads them on several merry adventures through the house. O’Connell himself takes the royal party across the beach walkway to nearby Abbey Island to inspect the ruins of Ahamore Abbey, where his family is buried. “What a sorrow, to see such a beautiful thing thus” Charlotte remarks at the Abbey, running her hand down a stone wall. O’Connell cannot resist, making his only politically charged comment of the stay: “Rather like Ireland herself, ma’am”. Charlotte merely raises a brow at this comment, before continuing along her inspection. It might not have been the private political enclave that O’Connell was desperate for, but the stay at Derrynane House served a purpose, nonetheless. It allowed O’Connell to know something of Charlotte as a private person and bind him further to her and her cause - this is a skill that Charlotte will repeat often in her reign, preferring private visits infinitely to ‘public’ ones and enforcing a strict ‘no politics’ ban during her stays. O’Connell’s wife Mary perhaps describes the Queen best: “One simply cannot see where the Queen ends and the woman begins, and therein lies all her charm. She is always the same being - it is others who change their attitudes or tones, depending always on their audience and their setting” [13].
Revitalized from her stay at Derrynane, Charlotte is ready to continue the tour. On the third day of March, she and her party arrive in Cork. This is the last ‘new’ city they will encounter, as they will return to Dublin after their visit here. (And thank goodness for that - despite everyone doing their best to keep up their spirits, almost two months of constant movement and display is wearing on anyone, even royals. Years later, when praised for her perseverance and positive attitude on a particularly lengthy tour, Charlotte’s daughter Missy is asked how she manages so well. “This is nothing compared to Ireland in February, in a carriage, with all the brothers and sisters and servants in tow” she replies). The city is known for strongly supporting the Irish nationalist cause, and frankly a lot of people are wondering why Charlotte would be so foolhardy as to even set foot there. It’s definitely the coolest reception she’s received, even after another speech in Gaelic and numerous appearances at various openings and charitable events. A tour of Cork Harbor is considered the highlight of Charlotte’s visit, as she charms multiple sailors and their wives by speaking frankly to them, asking questions about their lives, and commiserating with other mothers whose sons are away at sea. No one shoots at her either. Charles Perry, the Mayor of Cork, will later remark in a letter to O’Connell regarding the James Carran case that “If we [the people of Cork] felt no reason to fire a gun at H.M. [Her Majesty], surely a Dublin lad had no need to do so.”
The journey is set to end where it began - in Dublin. Charlotte and her party arrive in Dublin on March 11th, settling into Dublin Castle, but keep a much lower profile than their first visit, only making a few public appearances. One of the few events during this time is a small reception at Dublin Castle, where Adolphus Fitzclarence is granted letters, patent creating him Baron of Drumanagh [14], with the succession vested in his heirs male legitimate of his body (currently his newborn son, Charles). It is also announced that the new Lord Drumanagh will be appointed to the Order of Saint Patrick. Officially, these elevations are ascribed to Fitzclarence's years of loyal service, but generally theory ascribes it to his quick thinking and attempt to protect Charlotte from Carran. Patrick Lalor, also present, accepts a knighthood from Charlotte at this time, though he politely declines a place in the Order (he’s learning how to play nice with this English Queen, and has admitted - under pressure- that she might not be the worst possible thing to ever happen to Ireland. But he’s certainly not joining any order related to the so-called Church of Ireland, no matter how much he secretly admires the Queen). This small ceremony is but an appetizer for the main event, the one that has churchmen and nobles and almost anyone who is anyone in Ireland traveling to Dublin this cold, rainy March - the ceremony investing the new knights of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick.
On March 17th, the sun rises over cleaned streets, decorated with bunting and early daffodils, bluebells, and wild garlic, leading down to St Patrick's Cathedral. At half past nine, the current knights of the order, as well as their spouses and the spouses of the appointees, settle into the pews. By ten, the crowds outside the cathedral have grown to massive proportions. There are modest cheers when the current knights, gowned in their full vestments, walk through the crowd to the Cathedral to take their places. The cheers grow a little louder for Anglesey, the Grand Master of the Order, showing off his fine new badge and star, glinting with the jewels donated by Charlotte. When Charlotte appears astride her white horse, gowned in a white silk gown embroidered with gold (the same gown she wore for her coronation), covered with her celestial blue vestments as the Sovereign of the Order, the cheers are deafening. There’s a bit of a jostling as both Anglesey and Leopold move to help Charlotte dismount, but Leopold wins with a well-placed, nearly invisible elbow to the ribs. Charlotte proceeds independently up the aisle of the aisle of the cathedral, to stand at the front of the choir. It is the first time a sovereign has ever participated in the ceremony (Charlotte privately declares it “terribly dull” compared to the Order of the Garter, where she is allowed to perform the investitures herself, instead of “standing like an idol”), so there have had to be a few changes in the procedure to account for her presence.
Charlotte is joined by the Archbishop of Armagh to one side, as Anglesey kneels in front of her. In a clear voice, she charges Anglesey to uphold the standards of a knight and a gentleman in his service to the order, and as it’s Grand Master, acting in his Sovereign’s name, to ensure the knights and gentlemen under his command did the same. Anglesey agrees, and comes to stand on Charlotte's other side. The ceremony proceeds: each new member comes forward to swear his oath and receive his admonitions from the Archbishop. The new member then receives his vestments of the order from the Grand Master. After all of the investitures have been completed, the knights take their place in their assigned stalls (Charlotte has her own as the Sovereign of the Order), and listen to the service of thanksgiving performed by the Archbishop [16]. Once the service is completed, everyone slowly proceeds back down the aisle of the cathedral to emerge to the sunshine and cheering crowds outside.
It is, Daniel O’Connell will write to Lord Grey, not perhaps an Irish coronation but certainly the closest the people of Ireland have seen in a long time. A beautiful queen astride a white horse, charging men to recall their nobility and serve her well, on the only sunny day in March since God himself knows when - it’s a deeply moving image, and one that survives as a crowning glory of Charlotte’s Ireland tour.
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[1] OTL, The Duke of Sussex was Queen Victoria’s favorite uncle and gave her away at her wedding in 1840.
[2] The L&M was the first intercity railway in the world, in addition to being the first to operate fully on steam engines, the first to transport mail, and the first to have a timetable.
[3] In all transparency, William Austin disappears from the record after the death of Queen Caroline - which OTL occurred in 1821. Since it’s after POD, I’ve decided to flesh him out a bit. All recollections of him, besides Charlotte’s, recall him as “a modest lad, remarkably plain in his dress, of quiet and diffident manners” (The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, Flora Fraser, 1996) and “a very fine young man” (Memoirs of Her late Majesty Caroline, queen of Great Britain, 1821).
[4] Historically, nuns filled the role of nurses in the United Kingdom and most of Europe. In England, after the reformation, the position mostly fell out of practice and suffered a major setback for the next two centuries - you were most likely to be ‘nursed’ by a down on her luck prostitute with no training, if you had a nurse at all. It was not until Florence Nightingale and her efforts in the Crimean War that the foundations of the profession were laid out. The creation of the Red Cross contributed greatly to the professionalization of nursing in the 1860s and formal military use of nurses began in the Boer War. I am an advanced practice nurse, and I have a lot of feelings about the profession, obviously - of course someone is going to try to jump start nursing as a career early in my TL.
[5] Any guesses where all of their names come from?
[6] Yes, I did this on purpose. It’s not impossible that it’s actually his name, but it’s also not impossible that he used a fake name when he eloped with a minor - and what sailor wouldn't want to be the Great Drake himself?
[7] All true. Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey, served in the British cavalry during the French Revolutionary Wars and reached the rank of lieutenant-general. He also served at Waterloo under Wellington, and led the charge of heavy cavalry during the battle - at this time, he was hit in with a cannonball and had to have his right leg amputated. “According to anecdote, he was close to Wellington when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, "By God, sir, I've lost my leg!" – to which Wellington replied, "By God, sir, so you have!"”. His leg later became a tourist attraction in Waterloo. Anglesey was married to Lady Caroline Villiers from 1795 to their divorce in 1810, following his elopement with Lady Charlotte Cadogan Wellesley - the very married sister-in-law of the Duke of Wellington. Anglesey later fought a duel with Charlotte’s brother Henry over the elopement. Between his two wives, he had eighteen children. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “Paget's support of the proceedings against Queen Caroline, alleging her infidelity, made him for a time unpopular, and when he was on one occasion beset by a crowd, who compelled him to shout "The Queen!", he added the wish, "May all your wives be like her"."
[8] Signs of very justifiable PTSD.
[9] Yeah, they’re deeply regretting allowing Augustus to pick his representative. But more on that later.
[10] Despite the authorization for the railway being passed by Parliament in 1826, OTL the railway was not built until 1845. In 1834, the Dublin and Kingstown railway was built, measuring a distance of six miles.
[11] My own creation - OTL Emily Charlotte was born twelve years after Charlotte’s death.
[12] OTL he did fill this position, and did his best to ensure fair treatment of former slaves following abolition - until he was run out of his position by former slave owners.
[13] This is an incredibly subtle reference to the motto of perhaps the most famous Queen of England, Elizabeth I - her official motto was “semper eadem” which translates to “always the same, never changing”. Elizabeth was known for her changeable personality, obviously, but she was always the same in her devotion to her duties and her people - a trait that Charlotte has inherited.
[14] Drumanagh is a headway in the north east of County Dublin, and was the site of a Roman fort.
[15] This is based on the Order of the Garter investiture ceremony - I could not find any information regarding the ceremony for the Order of Saint Patrick, and did the best I could with what I could find.
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Obviously this did not get past the first three months of 1834, but I had been stuck on this for so long I finally gave in and decided to post what I had and start fresh (in late March, early April) in the next post.
Thank you for my third Turtledove nomination and for years (eek!) of loyalty to this thread - you guys and your kindness and support have saved my sanity a thousand times over, and there are not words for what this community means to me.
Thank you for my third Turtledove nomination and for years (eek!) of loyalty to this thread - you guys and your kindness and support have saved my sanity a thousand times over, and there are not words for what this community means to me.
The more with learn about Drina the curiouser I get about what kind of woman she grows up to be.
Shakespear?
Well, she certainly won't be boring
Yep! Specifically women in Shakespeare who were betrayed or forsaken
it will be one juicy mess! Glad albert will be far away from it