Chapter XII · The Empress of Russia visits Bavaria—The Duchess Sophie’s Engagement and Marriage—An Unexpected Meeting with the Duchesse d’Alençon—A Last Attempt to forge the Links of Hymen around Ludwig
Ethel Harriet Hearn translation
In the latter half of September, 1868, the Empress of Russia came to Munich accompanied by a numerous suite. Her unsuccessful matrimonial project did not seem to have diminished her interest in the Sovereign of Bavaria.
Ludwig received her with the same respect and warmth as before, and entertained her with a magnificence the like of which had not been seen before in his realm. He had caused the apartments in Schloss Berg which were placed at the Empress’s disposal to be done up in exact similarity, according to description, to her rooms in the Russian Palace. A state luncheon at the Palace at Munich and a state performance at the theatre, alternated with excursions to his castles in the vicinity of the capital.
The Tsarina spent an evening with the royal family on the “Roseninsel,” where her young friend had arranged an Italian night with music and singing, and at which the singers of the opera took part. The whole of the lake of Starnberg was illuminated with Bengal lights. In the gardens and courtyard of the château were erected allegorical statues. Every rose-bush hid a surprise. Countless numbers of rockets were sent up into the air above the lake, and moved, many-hued, in the wind. Music was played on a vessel, so clothed in leafage that it resembled an islet, and on which the inhabitants and summer visitors to Starnberg had taken up their position, adding by their applause to the general festivity of the entertainment. It was like a tale from the “Thousand and One Nights.” The Russian Empress expressed the opinion later that she had never experienced anything so romantic as this evening.
The Grand Duchess Maria did not accompany her mother on this occasion. The King’s engagement to his cousin, and his breaking off of it, had convinced the Empress that, amiable as he was as a friend, she would probably do wisely in cooling her ardour to possess him as a son-in-law.
Shortly afterwards the Prince and his father went to England to make arrangements for the new home. The wedding took place on the 28th of September, 1868, at eleven in the forenoon, in the royal chapel at Possenhofen. At the marriage, which was performed by the Abbé Haneberg, were present, besides the bride’s parents and brothers, the Count and Countess di Trani, the Hereditary Princess Helene of Thurn and Taxis, and several of the Bavarian princes and princesses, also the Duc de Nemours, with both his daughters, the Comte de Paris, the Prince de Joinville, with his wife and son, and other members of the house of Orleans. The Empress of Austria and the ex-Queen of Naples, the latter with her husband, who had shortly before visited their paternal home, had left Bavaria immediately before the wedding.
The Neuesten Nachrichten of Munich, from which I have gathered these details, is silent on the subject of an episode which has lately become known through Freiherr von Völderndorff’s reminiscences of Prince Hohenlohe. In the midst of the ceremony Ludwig II. suddenly appeared, accompanied by the Empress of Russia, who was his guest at the time. His entrance had the most painful effect on all present. The King remained for over an hour in the home of the bride, apparently without in the least noticing the feeling of constraint which his presence occasioned. His determination to congratulate his former fiancée on her wedding-day was without doubt one of those momentary impulses which were continually fluctuating in the neurotic man’s restless mind.
The Duc and Duchesse d’Alençon went to England, where they lived during the first years of their married life. But Sophie often came back to Possenhofen. Ludwig avoided meeting her with the greatest care. Many years later they accidentally encountered one another at Seeshaupt on the lake of Starnberg. An accident had happened to his horses, and he had alighted from his carriage and had got up beside a peasant who was driving past, in order to return to Berg. At that juncture the Duchess Ludovica, with her youngest daughter by her side, drove past. The King ordered the peasant to make way for her equipage. He turned his head aside and took no notice whatever of the ladies.
He never came back, however, and apparently forgot both the charming day in Friedrichshafen and Princess Emma of Waldeck-Pyrmont.