Chapter XIV
“Prompted by a keen desire to evoke
All the blessed calm of matrimony's yoke”
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Prince Albert Victor's proposal of marriage to Hélène of Orléans in early 1889 stunned Europe. The Princess' Catholicism prompted furious debate in Parliament forcing even the new Prime Minister, William Henry Smith, to participate. When the Conservative-dominated House of Lords expressed concern at the engagement, numerous organisations formed, both in support and opposition to the Prince. Although personally non-committal on the matter, Chamberlain saw it as an opportunity to press home division amongst the government, as seen from his engagement with the "League of Imperial Loyalists", which established to coordinate pro-Albertine activities throughout the British Isles.
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ALBERT VICTOR’S WAR: 1889 constitutional crisis resulting from Prince Albert Victor of Wales and his proposal of marriage to the Catholic Princess, Hélène of Orléans. Despite the Prince’s popularity amongst the public, the engagement prompted strong criticism from the Conservative dominated House of Lords. It also led to furious debate within W. H. Smith’s administration as a result of the perceived incompatibility of the marriage with the 1701 Act of Succession, which disqualified members of the Royal Family who married Roman Catholics from ascending the throne.
The crisis dominated political and public life throughout the British Empire for almost a year, leading to an ideological realignment in Westminster that would persist until the end of Victoria’s reign. Numerous societies, both pro- and anti- Victor were established during the period, with the Radical Association and Primrose League acting as fora for dissatisfied Liberals and Conservatives respectively. Resolution was reached by an Extraordinary Colonial Conference in January 1890, some time after the wedding itself, although arrangements were not formally concluded until a resolution was passed by the Federal Council of Australasian over two years later.”
See Also: ACTS OF SUCCESSION, CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION, QUEEN HELEN"
-From
“The Encyclopaedia of British Politics, 5th Edition” by Jonathan Hopkin, Beaver Books 2005
“Albert Victor’s extended sojourn in Surrey during the New Year had passed almost unnoticed by the European newspapers, which had been preoccupied with the scandalous events that had surrounded Archduke Rudolf of Austria, who had been prevented by a matter of seconds from killing both himself and his mistress at his hunting lodge near Vienna. Whilst columnists and reporters questioned the impact of the so-called
“Mayerling Incident” on the health of the Habsburg Dynasty, few noted the flurry of senior members of the Royal Household that hurried between Buckingham Palace and Sheen House, the home of the exiled Count of Paris. Within a month of meeting her, Albert Victor proposed to the future Queen Helen at her father’s home, throwing the Empire into a yearlong constitutional crisis. The Count, who was naturally sceptical of the union out of fear that it would damage any hope of being restored to the throne, originally resolved to keep the affair a secret. Given the providence of the couple, this naturally proved unworkable, with the nuptials being gazetted a matter of days later.
Why did Helen say yes? Whilst it is true that she had been less than enamoured with the permanently awkward and slightly moronic Albert Victor - especially when compared to his dashing cousin, Nicholas - she clearly found him a good fit for her own personality.
“Eddy lacks for nothing” she wrote in a letter of 13th February,
“whilst it is true that he had a profound shyness. His countenance and sense of duty are of a Cherubic constitution, of a sort that seems lacking amongst those destined for the thrones of the powers.” Helen’s own nature was far more tenacious, but it is obvious that she complimented him in a way that his other paramours, least of all Princess Alix of Hesse, were clearly unable to. The couple had resolved to marry far more swiftly that their handful of confidants had expected them to, with even Prince George expressing his disbelief at the speed of the courtship.
Although the national media was divided on the matter, it is important to note that The Queen lent her uncompromising support to the couple from the outset. Victoria was always sceptical towards Helen’s intentions, but she was exceptionally close to her grandson, who she saw as embodying her late husband to a far greater extent than the Prince of Wales did. Were it not for her stoicism during the fraught summer of 1889, it is quite likely that the engagement would have broken down even without the stubbornness of the Duke and the doggered attitude of Leo XIII.”
-From
“Victoria’s Heirs” by Courtney Rudd-Lomax, Pavilion 1993
“The marriage between Albert and Helen has spawned countless romances, plays and luminals since it stormed the barricades of the Imperial body politic in the final year of the Damnable Eighties. Whilst the matter would seem trivial today, the controversy that emerged from the engagement was apparent from the start. Although the general public was fond enough of the Prince to afford him widespread approval, the nation was still beset with a prevailing sense of Anti-Catholicism, which had only been exacerbated by the latest wave of Finnian Outrages in light of the extension of the Coercion Act. Although unrelated, it was a clear example of ill-timing when Arthur Balfour narrowly avoided being blown to smithereens at a gala dinner at Dublin Castle on the same day as the engagement was announced. A clear case of newspaper editors wishing for two headlines was apparent, with many publications opting to carry both stories rather clumsily on either side of the front page. Of the political journals, only the Radical Association carried a full-spirited endorsement of the engagement, although Chamberlain warned Lloyd George of the threat the relationship could have upon the relationship between Paris and Westminster.
From the initial tepid endorsement, public opinion soured somewhat when Prince Phlippe refused to allow his daughter to convert to Anglicanism. Overall, the couple actually gained sympathy from this parental prescription, with even the most ardent members of the High Church considering the matter to be one of national insult. This was further exacerbated when
“L'Intransigeant" editorialised that the relationship between Albert Victor and Helen had been manufactured as part of a diplomatic conspiracy between Whitehall and the Restorationists. The report caused outrage on either side of the Channel, with Henry Drummond Wolff at one point demanding the expulsion of the French Ambassador until an apology was forthcoming. Over the next few months, the government went to absurd lengths to prevent the matter being debated in Parliament, but this was rendered impossible following a speech by John Crichton, the Earl Erne, on the 18th March.”
-From
“’The Common Man Hath No Desire For An Aeroship!’ A History of Britain Since Gladstone” by A. P. G. Taylor, Oxford University Press 1962
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‘Evangeline; or, The Angel's Cruelty’ is a comic opera in two parts with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan. Premiering at the Savoy Theatre on 15th April 1889, it is the twelfth of the fifteen highly successful creative partnerships between the two. It is unconnected with Henry Longfellow’s epic of the same title, although Sullivan was familiar with it.
After the success of
‘Double Dealings’ and
‘The Wardens of the Tower,’ ‘Evangeline’ is a far more serious work, with perhaps the most dramatic score of any of the duo’s collaborations. Of all the Savoy Operas, it is the one where Sullivan’s influence is most apparent, with Gilbert’s libretto often doing little but simply accompanying the score. Despite this,
‘Evangeline’ opened to enthusiastic reviews on opening night and ran for over 300 performances before the final performance on 8th June 1890. The orchestral arrangement takes a number of influences from Mussorgsky’s
‘Boris Godunov’, which Sullivan had become familiar with during a visit to St. Petersburg.
Gilbert claimed that the main inspiration for the opera was the state visit to London by Alexander III in the previous summer. The Russian Emperor arrived at Harwich accompanied by guards from the Preobrazhensky Regiment and a troop of Orthodox Priests parading various icons from Palekh and Kholuy. The pageantry of the occasion left a lasting impression on the composer, who spent the next few weeks visiting the Slavonic Institute in Bloomsbury for inspiration. In addition, domestic issues - not least the controversial nuptials of Prince Albert Victor of Wales and Princess Hélène of Orléans - also contributed to the satirical basis of the production, as did international events such as the Vladimirovka Crisis and the outbreak of the First Korean War. Costume design, stage direction and script also pay tribute to aspects of other
“Orientalist” works during the late-Victorian period, although not to the extent of 1885’s
‘The Mikado’
ACT I
‘Evangeline’ opens up with the shy and retiring protagonist, Svetlana Ikaneva, returning to her hometown of Taragov after being summoned there by her estranged father, Gregor. Waiting at the railway station, she is surprised by the sudden appearance of a spirit, who warns her that she is fated to encounter danger and endure tremendous sadness if she remains in the region. Although frightened by the encounter, Svetlana recovers just before being met by her father’s associate, Maxim. The two journey to the nearby village of Geogorsk, where her inventor father introduces her to his latest creation, the titular “Evangeline.”
Evangeline, a clockwork girl indistinguishable from a regular human, has been created by Gregor as a means of taking the place of the town’s representative to the Legislative Commission in St. Petersburg as a means of ensure that the proposed removal of local customs regulations does not take place. The inventor and his underlings explain the plan to Svetlana during the refrain
“A Substitute Invader” before encouraging her to take Evangeline into the town as a means of showing her how to act as a normal member of society. Svetlana, Evangeline and Maxim return to Taragov, accompanied by the German apprentice boy Andreas. After settling into their lodgings in the middle of the town, Svetlana is again confronted by the spirit in a local churchyard of St Vladimir’s. The apparition, who introduces himself as
“The Third of the Seven” claims that Evangeline must be destroyed before the end of the week, or the collective power of the spirits will destroy the entire town. The two mournfully refrain
“This Beautiful World is Fragile Indeed” before the ghost, who claims to be the guardian of the local church, fades into the air as the curtain falls.
ACT II
Svetlana arrives home, is accompanied by Andreas boastfully declaring his intention to
“A Private, Perfect, Ambassador for Victory” before rushing off to prepare for a battle he is convinced he can win. Shortly afterwards, he returns, shakily explaining that he was cursed with an horrific vision, emulating Iolanthe’s Lord Chancellor by singing
“When You’ve Had a Confuddled Experience” before he falls into a deep, almost catatonic, sleep. Fearful of this, Svetlana and Maxim are able to prevent
“The Fifth of the Seven” from waylaying them as they take Andreas back to Geogorsk, where Gregor refuses to believe their story, assuming that they also mean to ruin his chances of influencing the Legislative Commission. Locking the three of them in the cellar, he takes off for the train station, vowing to take Evangeline to St. Petersburg himself, stating that he holds no care for the possibility of dooming the town in the process.
Soon after, the trio are visited by
“The Sixth of the Seven”, who takes the appearance of a fellow engineer by the name of Cyril. He releases them, but not before claiming that
“The Seventh of the Seven is Sober Indeed” and fading away. Now convinced that Gregor knew the circumstances of what was going to happen, the three companions, accompanied by a furiously revived Andreas, make for Taragov Railway Station. As they arrive on the platform, the furious knight of St Vladimir, taking the visage of a terrifying spectre, is already demanding that Gregor hands over Evangeline to him. Svetlana’s father, having already sacrificed the love of one daughter, argues with St Vladimir, but is silenced when the ghost throws her to the ground, seemingly killing her.
Tearfully refraining
“If One Could Circumnavigate Time” Gregor is given the choice of giving his own life in return for Evangeline’s. Taking a look at the daughter he abandoned, he does so. Evangeline is returned to life, this time as a real girl and as the townspeople arrive, the four sing
“He Was Aware That He Had Lost A Child” in memory of the fallen inventor. As Andreas and Svetlana confess their love for each other, the crowd burst into the final song
“When Your Heart Returns to its Origins.”
The critical reception was highly enthusiastic about Sullivan’s efforts, with the Telegraph’s review stating that;
“The accompaniments are absolutely delightful to hear, the treatment of the woodwind compel especially warrants fulsome attention. Schubert himself could hardly have handled those instruments more deftly, written for them more lovingly. We place the songs and choruses in Evangeline before all his previous efforts of this particular kind. Thus the music follows the book to a higher plane, and we have a genuine English opera, forerunner of many others, let us hope, and possibly significant of an advance towards a national lyric stage. Whilst lacking the overt enthusiasm of the French School, the flamboyance of the latest Italian works or the grandeur of Herr Wagner’s German disciples, Mr Gilbert should be proud of the clear and eclectic style he has nursed to maturity.”
Gilbert expressed irritation at being overlooked by the critics, threatening to dissolve the partnership after opening night. The announcement permeated the national discourse, even prompting the Prime Minister, W. H. Smith to write a letter attempting to reconcile the two. After two months, Gilbert recanted his position, taking the lead role in the pair’s next collaboration,
‘The Bey of Unita.’
-From
“The Oxford Companion to English Music, Opera and Composers” by William H. Rehnquist, Oxford University Press 1967
“Scepticism of the Papacy was not a novel experience to the United Kingdom in 1890, but it was something that manifested itself in a different way to the prevailing sense of Anti-Fenian that had substituted for it prior to Albert Victor’s War. The decision by the Earl Erne to draw a link between the two roused a number of factions within the House of Lords into action, who were joined by almost all the Ulster Tories and a sizeable contingent of Merseyside MPs in condemning the marriage. Although Erne attempted to avoid any attempts at criticising the Prince - who remained very popular with the majority of the electorate - this was soon undone by George Wise, the young evangelical who was to hold dominance over Liverpool’s Protestant population for well over a generation. Although Wise had only arrived in the city twelve months before the controversy broke, he had already established a substantial following amongst the Council Wards that had been the early recipients of J. C. Ryle’s Evangelisation strategy. Wise was able to tap into the seam of Protestant Democracy, further entrenching it with the working-class distrust of the upwardly mobile Scouse Irish, who formed a substantial cohort of the city’s petit-bourgeois. Anti-Catholicism had a long history in Liverpool. Both sides of the sectarian divide had memories of Reverend Hugh McNeile’s
“No Popery” campaign of 1841-1852, which had formed a block against the Conservative-Anglican establishment that controlled the city council.
Wise launched his movement against the Royal Wedding on 18th April. Speaking to a crowd at Islington Square, a popular meeting place for the citizens of the predominantly Catholic quarter in the North End, Wise’s calls for a
“Protestant Crusade” led to an immediate confrontation between the two sides. Bricks were thrown from the tenement blocks that surrounded the arena, a gesture that was reciprocated by the youths that had formed a phalanx around Wise and his associates. Only ten minutes after he had concluded his speech, Wise was arrested, which served to only inflame the crowd yet further. The fragility of the situation was apparently not recognised by the local constabulary, who were forced to barricade themselves in the nearby police station as the mob set about the city in the worst riots for over a generation. Two days later, an unnamed Protestant teenager grabbed a bottle of methylated spirits from an abandoned gin distillery and filled it with a rag which he then set alight. As he threw it into the ranks of an approaching Catholic Protection Squad, the
“Everton Cocktail” was born.”
-From
‘Sectarianism in the Late Victorian Period’ in
“European History Review” by Roderick Dalberg, Leeds Carnegie Press 1995
“Whilst common amongst the monarchies of central Europe, where succession rights and dynastic holdings can be fatally undermined by all but the most closely scrutinised partnerships, morganatic marriage was almost unheard of within the context of the British monarchy prior to the engagement of Prince Albert Victor and Hélène of Orléans in 1889. With the Liverpool Riots of the same year forcing Parliament to formally approve the marriage, the question of Hélène’s Catholic faith - coupled with her father’s initial refusal to allow her to convert to Anglicanism - resulted in a number of attempts to establish the morganatic principles as a means of circumventing the Act of Succession. In May of that year, a Commission established by W. H. Smith to consider the constitutional implications of the marriage reported back. Much to the disappointment of the Prime Minister, who had hoped that such an arrangement would have avoided the need to do so, the Earl of Selborne noted approval for a change still required the unanimous approval by the various Dominions. The Prime Minister, who loathed such summit meetings, promptly dispatched the Duke of Richmond in his stead. By August, less than two months before the wedding, it was clear that neither Ottawa, nor the Australasia Premiers, would be prepared to acquiesce to Westminster’s demands, threatening to remove Albert Victor from the line of succession.
At a crisis meeting shortly afterwards, Prince Philippe finally accepted the government’s demands for Hélène’s conversion. Although the morganatic option was not used on this occasion, the precedent had been made for considering it in future eventualities, with Isaac Foot’s administration using it to finalise the marriage between King David III and Princess Hildegarde of Bavaria in 1947.”
-From
“Constitutional Law of the Federal Kingdom” by Sachin Khedekar, Gresham 1993
“Nationally, the fight against Albert Victor was over before it had even got going. Even as the Home Secretary sent the army in to restore order, all but the most ardently Anti-Papist newspapers were arguing that calling off the wedding would represent an impossibly humiliating volte-face for the government. Joseph Chamberlain’s march on Westminster on 27th April, under the banner of
“Peers or the Prince?” came as little more than a footnote. Yet it is a mark of Chamberlain’s character that he chose to do so. The controversy permitted him to articulate determined opposition to the Upper Chamber.
“During the last 100 years,” he had said in Birmingham in 1884,
“the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common weal; but during that time it has protected every abuse and sheltered every privilege.” Yet it also gained him an ally in the Royal Family, a constituency that had previously been out of his reach. Gladstone had reassured Victoria about Chamberlain’s radicalism during the 1885 election campaign, but he still had to endure a wariness that remained between him, the Queen and the Prince of Wales. In Albert Victor, he at last had a true ally amongst Royalty.”
-From
“The Chamberlain Dynasty” by J. E. Powell, Cambridge University Press 1955
“The marriage led to a repeat of the furious editorials of six months ago, but at an even more heated rate. Although the death of the Count of Chambord had robbed the Legitimists of any hope of forming the mainstream group amongst the Restorationists, the marriage of Princess Helen to Prince Albert Victor of Wales was still seen as a conspiracy between the Orleanists and Whitehall to divide the right-wing yet further. Although the 1885 elections had seen the number of rightist MPs more than doubled, of the 201 deputies elected within the caucus, fewer than 90 of them were monarchists. There was no sign of any real support for a second restoration by the time of the Royal Wedding. Indeed, the right saw only modest gains at the 1889 elections, although they arguably came too early to have been affected by it. The Legitimists were certainly discredited by the affair, with Prince Philippe’s
Pacte Nationale losing out to Victor Napoleon’s
Central Committee of Imperialist Appeal to the People. Shortly after the marriage, the Bonapartists actively encouraged the Prince Imperial, a long-term bachelor, to seek out a bride of his own.”
-From
“Best of Foes: Anglo-French Relations since the Norman Conquest” by Konrad Schmidt, Hodder 1985
