Bloody Marriage
Throughout the ages, the royals got hitched for duty (and money), not love
Love match . In contrast, the marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840 marks one of the happiest royal pairings, with a far-reaching legacy for England and all Europe. After an arranged family visit at age 19, the shy monarch quickly became besotted with her cousin, the serious young prince of Saxe-Coburg--"It was with some emotion that I beheld Albert, who is beautiful," she wrote in her diary--and soon proposed to him. They were great partners in work and life and had nine children together, who were eventually wed off to the royal families of almost every country in Europe, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, and Russia, creating what Victoria herself called "the royal mob" and leading to a relatively peaceful reign, albeit one marked by the queen's great sadness and seclusion after her husband's untimely death in 1861. Even so, marriage for state purposes could only accomplish so much. "There was a tremendous desire for war in Europe at the time, and [Victoria's grandson] Kaiser Wilhelm II, her 'Willy,' and his 'cousin Nicky' [Czar Nicholas II] could not pull away . . . despite their close family relationship, because that's what their people demanded," says Arturo Beeche, editor of the European Royal History Journal, who observes that their descendants also carried the recessive gene for hemophilia into the still shallow royal marriage pool.
Although the power of the monarchy was already on the decline, by this point, convention--and popular opinion--continued to drive royal matches well into the 20th century. In 1936, for example, Edward VIII famously gave up his throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, because, in an ironic twist, divorce is not an option in the Church of England--founded by a king in order to put aside his first wife and marry another--either for prospective spouses or royal couples. Indeed, as royal unions have veered more toward true romance and less toward matters of state, the political reach of the monarchy has declined even further, with today's rulers serving as mere figureheads, says Anna Clark, who is also the author of Scandal: the Sexual Politics of the British Constitution . She adds, "Nowadays, people find that the royal family is just like any other family, with divorces, family quarrels, and scandals--they can't uphold their perfect, conventional image anymore--and it makes many people wonder what the monarchy is for." The fact that would-be kings and queens can now marry almost anyone, be it a longtime mistress or a commoner, adds another dimension to the debate. As Prince Michael of Greece, who married outside the nobility himself, noted in Vanity Fair back in 2003: "[T]he people, as they see their princes choose brides . . . from among their ranks and resemble them more and more in appearance and lifestyle, will one day come to question the purpose monarchies serve if they are no different from them."
As for George IV and Princess Caroline, their relationship ended as outrageously as it began: In 1820, after the death of King George III, the would-be queen, who had been gallivanting across Europe for many years, returned to England, ready to be anointed alongside her husband; however, George instigated a parliamentary investigation into his wife's activities abroad--including an alleged lurid affair with her Italian manservant--with the hope of ending their marriage. The incredibly embarrassing public "trial" ended when the bill against the princess, who remained incredibly popular with the people, was dropped, and in the end, the king did not get his divorce--although Caroline did not get her crown, either. Barred from George's coronation in 1821, she showed up anyway and pounded on the doors of Westminster Abbey, only to be turned away by burly bouncers. She died within weeks and was buried in her native Germany; her husband, who never remarried, passed away in 1830.
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