Royal Marital Diplomacy and Queenship

From Osborne, in August 1872, Queen Victoria fired off an angry letter to her eldest child, Prussian Crown Princess, Vicky, declaring Affie: ‘will look about but he will only choose someone he really fancies - and no sister better interfere with advice.’ The sister alluded to in her letter was her second daughter, Alice (Princess Louis of Hesse). And under discussion were the marital prospects of the Queen’s second son, Alfred who would marry Tsar Alexander II’s only surviving daughter, Marie, in January 1874.

The preliminaries to this union of two minor royals have received little scholarly attention, yet they reveal a powerful source of queenly power and influence.  This paper will explore the roles played by Queens and future Queens in its successful brokering. Negotiations for Alfred’s marriage were not confined to the kinship network of mother and daughters. They also involved the Russian Tsarina, who often went behind the back of her imperial husband to secure her daughter’s happiness; and Queen Augusta of Prussia, who reacted with hostility to the announcement, fearing anti-German marriages populating Northern Europe.

Using unexplored personal and political correspondence, including material located at the Royal Archives Windsor Castle, this chapter will shine light on the role of other European courts, particularly those into which Alfred’s sisters were married and wielded regal power, as well as the political implications of the match in a decade when Russia was Britain’s foremost imperial rival and the two powers sometimes on the verge of war. It will also investigate Victoria’s role in securing a future daughter-in-law and the often conflicting ideas of Victoria and the Tsarina Marie - ideas which seemingly challenged Queen Victoria’s authority as a regnant. In addition, it will examine the religious dimensions raised by an Orthodox-Anglican union, and the role of Britain’s diplomatic network in the affair.