Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires (21 page)

Not long after Vicky wrote these words, her predication came true when May became engaged to George in the spring of 1893. Vicky’s instincts proved correct when she said that the British people wanted May and George to marry. The couple was immensely popular with the general public. May was the grief-stricken princess whose dreams were shattered, and George was the noble, honorable brother now bound by duty to fill his brother’s shoes. Soon after the engagement was announced, the
Morning Post
published an article about May, noting, “Not only by birth, but by education and by domicile, she belongs to England. She possesses every qualification for the high place that awaits her.”
²⁴⁴

George—who was born June 3, 1865—was eighteen months younger than Eddy. Since he and Eddy were raised extremely closely, their childhood experiences with Princess May were similar. George was quiet, withdrawn, and used to blending into the background. He admired Eddy and was more than happy to let him have the limelight. When the Duke of Clarence died unexpectedly, George was overwhelmed by all the attention he received when he became heir to the throne of Britain and its empire. Since he was now second in line to the throne, George was forced to give up his active position in the Royal Navy, which he had held since 1877. Queen Victoria gave him the title Duke of York on May 24, 1892. This peerage, which like all others included a seat in the House of Lords, is typically given to the next male heir when there is still a Prince of Wales. Queen Victoria wrote to George when she conferred the York peerage on him, “I am glad you like the title of Duke of York. I am afraid, I do not and wish you had remained as you are. A Prince
no one
else can be, whereas a Duke any nobleman can be, and many are! I am not very fond of that of York which has not very agreeable associations.”
²⁴⁵

As a child, Princess May took little notice of George, who was usually off playing with his big brother. When George joined the Royal Navy and left for prolonged periods, May did not give his absence a second thought, especially once she became swept up in her engagement with Eddy, who was the first real love interest of her life. For George, his feelings for May were just the opposite. He had admired her for many years—and even more so once Eddy died. By the spring of 1893, he was prepared to take the risk of proposing, though he was scared he might be rejected. Family trips to the French Riviera had the effect of lightening the mood for one and all, including May. A few weeks later, while May and her mother were visiting Strelitz, her last palpable link to Eddy was symbolically and dramatically severed when a fire in the palace where they were staying destroyed all the pictures she had of him.

A flurry of letters soon began flying between the members of the British royal family. Queen Victoria wrote to Vicky; the Princess of Wales wrote to George; and the Duchess of Teck wrote to the queen. The only two people who kept things on an uncomplicated level, at least for them, were George and May. “Goodbye Miss May,” George wrote to her in March 1892, “ever your very loving old cousin Georgie.”
²⁴⁶
It took him more than a year to work up the courage to propose, and it required prodding from a number of his relatives. One person who was instrumental in pushing George in May’s direction was his maternal aunt Queen Olga of Greece. “I’m sure, tootsums, that she will make you happy,” Olga wrote encouragingly. “They say she has such a sweet disposition & is so
equal
and
that
in itself is a great blessing, because nothing can be more disagreeable in everyday-life, than a person which is in high spirits today & low tomorrow.”
²⁴⁷
Queen Victoria also strongly hoped for the match, writing to her grandson, “Have you seen May and have you thought more about the
possibility
or
foundout
[
sic
] what her feelings might be?”
²⁴⁸
On May 29, 1893, George decided to do just that. It was a misty but comfortable afternoon. After they had tea together, he invited May for a walk through the Richmond garden of his aunt Princess Louise, the future Duchess of Argyll. May recorded in her diary her recollections of what happened next: “We walked together afterwards in the gardens and he proposed to me, & I accepted him.… I drove home to announce the news to Mama & Papa & Georgie followed.… We telegraphed to all the relations.”
²⁴⁹
Once it was done, Queen Victoria reported happily, “Received a telegram from Georgie … to say he was engaged to May Teck, and asked for my consent. I answered that I gladly did so.”
²⁵⁰

At the time of the engagement, George’s mother, Alexandra, was away in Venice. A week after the news broke, she sent May the following message:

God bless
you
both
& let me welcome you back once more as my dear daughter & grant you all the happiness here on Earth—which
you
so fully deserve—with my Georgie—which was alas denied you with my darling Eddy. I am sure … his spirit is watching over you now and rejoicing with us & that the clouds have been lifted once more from your saddened young life and that you may yet look forward to a bright & happy future with the brother he loved so well … I know we two will always understand each other & I hope that my sweet May will always come straight to me for everything … Ever yr most loving & devoted old Motherdear.
²⁵¹

May was happier than she had been for a long time, but both she and George had difficulty overcoming their natural timidity. “I am very sorry I am still so shy with you,” she wrote to him. “I tried not to be the other day, but alas I failed, I was angry with myself!” She thought it was “so stupid to be so stiff together and really there is nothing I would not tell you, except that I LOVE you more than anybody in the world, and this I cannot tell you myself so I write it to relieve my feelings.” Touched by his fiancée’s letter, George replied, “Thank God we both understand each other, and I think it really unnecessary for me to tell you how deep my love for you my darling is and I feel it growing stronger and stronger every time I see you; although I may appear shy and cold.”
²⁵²

By the summer of 1893, much to Queen Victoria’s satisfaction, preparations were well in place for the much-anticipated wedding of Princess May of Teck to the Duke of York. On July 4, the British royal family attended a performance at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in honor of the upcoming nuptials. Roses of every color decorated the building. Box seats were decorated with pink roses; the proscenium was lined with them as well. Bouquets of pink, white, and crimson roses were supplied to every balcony. When May arrived, dressed in an ice-blue brocade with two rows of perfect pearls around her neck and a diamond tiara and earrings, the three thousand people gathered rose to their feet and gave her a standing ovation.

Two days later, on July 6, May and George were married in the Chapel Royal of Saint James’s Palace, just down Pall Mall from Buckingham Palace. It was the biggest event for the royal family since Queen Victoria’s jubilee in 1887, and it brought together some of the continent’s most illustrious royals. George’s cousins came from Saint Petersburg, including Tsarevitch Nicholas. So too did his other cousin, Emperor Wilhelm II. King Christian IX and Queen Louise of Denmark, the groom’s maternal grandparents, arrived from Copenhagen; the wedding registry alone was signed by twenty-seven royals. The guests marveled at the lavish wedding gifts the couple received. The more than fifteen hundred presents—including horses, ponies, carriages, sleighs, boats, and a cow from India—were so numerous that they had to be stored at the Imperial Institute near Kensington Palace. Their worth was estimated at more than £1 million at the time. On the morning of the wedding, May penciled a note to her soon-to-be husband: “What a memorable day in our lives this will be. God grant it may bring us much happiness. I love you with all my heart. Yrs for ever & ever—May.”
²⁵³

An estimated two million excited spectators filled the streets of London to catch a glimpse of May and Queen Victoria as they rode together in a glass carriage pulled by four cream-colored horses. As she entered the Chapel Royal, the bride was escorted by ten bridesmaids, nine of whom were Queen Victoria’s granddaughters. Among the bridesmaids were two future queens: George’s twenty-three-year-old sister, Maud of Wales, the future queen of Norway; and little six-year-old Ena of Battenberg, who was destined to be queen of Spain. During the ceremony, May appeared serene as she took her vows. Tsarevitch Nicholas recorded that she looked “radiant” and was “much better looking than her photograph.”
²⁵⁴
Following her family’s tradition, all the silk for her dress came “from England, all the flannel from Wales, all the tweeds from Scotland, and every yard of lace and poplin from Ireland.”
²⁵⁵
Her cloth-of-silver wedding gown was embroidered with roses, orange blossoms, and other flowers. On her head sat a stunning arrangement of diamonds, courtesy of Queen Victoria. “The great day, so anxiously looking forward to, was very bright and fine,” Queen Victoria wrote. “To describe this day fully would be impossible.… I could not help but remember that I had stood, where May did, fifty-three years ago, and dear Vicky thirty-five years ago, and that the dear ones, who stood where Georgie did, were gone from us! May these dear children’s happiness last longer!”
²⁵⁶

In her diary entry for that day, Lady Geraldine Somerset captured the true atmosphere that prevailed.

May’s Wedding Day! The greatest success ever seen or heard of! not a hitch from first to last, nor an if or a but!! everything went
absolutely à souhait
! first of all it was the
most heavenly
day ever
could
be.… The town was alive!! swarms everywhere! … Piccadilly was beautifully decorated; but anything to equal the loveliness of St. James’s Street I never saw – it was like a bower from end to end … garlands of green across and between the Venetian masts with bracelets of flowers suspended from them,
too
pretty.

I went to the Household pew in the Chapel Royal … It was all so admirably arranged I think everybody in the Chapel could see well! The first to enter the Chapel was the Queen followed by P[rincess] M[ary Adelaide] who drove
in
the Queen’s carriage from Buckingham Palace!! will her head be still on her shoulders tomorrow! I believe it will have expanded and blown to the moon! The Princess of Wales looked
more lovely
– than ever! – none can approach her! but I was so sorry for her today. May with the Duke of York standing at the Altar!! and for the Princess
what pain
.
²⁵⁷

The “pain” that Lady Somerset wrote of regarded the Princess of Wales and George. Alexandra was close with all of her children, but even more so with George, as he became her only son when Eddy died. It was no secret that Alexandra was both happy and saddened by her son’s marriage to May, which she knew would change their relationship forever.

The honeymoon was spent at York Cottage, their new home on the Sandringham estate. During the few days the Yorks spent alone there, they constantly wrote love notes to one another. George found it much easier to express his love for his wife in writing. In one letter after their wedding, he poured out his belief that his love for May had grown so much since their engagement.

You know by this time that I never do anything by halves, when I asked you to marry me I was very fond of you, but not very much in love with you, but saw in
you
the person I was capable of loving most deeply, if you only returned that love … I have tried to understand you and to know you, and with the happy result that I know now that I do love you darling girl with all my
heart
, and am simply
devoted
to you …
I adore you sweet May
. My love grows stronger for you every day, mixed with admiration and I thank God every day that he has given me such a darling devoted wife as you are. God bless you my sweet Angel May, who I know will always stick to me as I need our love and help more than ever now.
²⁵⁸