Royal Insight Forum

A thread dedicated to all historic royal weddings from the past up to the end of the 19th century

Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught was the son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Great Britain.   
Princess Louise Margaret was the daughter of Prince Friedrich Karl and Princess Marie of Prussia.
Arthur and Louise Margaret married on March 13, 1879 at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.   
Louise Margaret wore a heavy white satin dress. Her skirt was decorated with a bunch of myrtle leaves. The bridal veil was made of point d'Alencon lace. Its design represented orange blossoms, roses, and myrtle leaves intertwined.

Queen Victoria wondered at the time as to whether Arthur was marrying Louise out of pity, as she had had such a terrible home life. Her father was an absolute pig of a man. When Arthur introduced Louise to his mother for the first time he drove a carriage over to Windsor himself, with Louise sitting by his side. The fact that they had journeyed together alone somewhat shocked his mother.

The Duchess of Connaught on her wedding day   
The Duchess Of Connaught On Her Wedding Day Stock Photo: 56683781 - Alamy (http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-duchess-of-connaught-on-her-wedding-day-56683781.html)

The bridesmaids were Lady Georgiana Spencer-Churchill, Lady Blanche Conyngham, Lady Louisa Bruce, Lady Mabel Bridgeman, Lady Ela Russell, Lady Adelaide Taylour, Lady Cecilia Hay, and Lady Victoria Edgcumbe.

After the ceremony, Prince Arthur and Princess Louise Margaret signed the register in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle before attending the luncheon.

A thread dedicated to all historic royal weddings from the past up to the end of the 19th century.

Richard I was King of England from 1189 to 1199. He married Princess Berengaria of Navarre. Since Richard was busy preparing for the Third Crusade, he sent his mother Queen Eleanor to Navarre to secure Princess Berengaria's hand in marriage. The wedding was held in Limassol on May 12, 1191 at the Chapel of St. George.

On February 27, 1881 Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany) married Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. She was the daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Wilhelm's grandfather Wilhelm I reigned as Emperor of Germany.   
The wedding picture of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria. Kaiser Wilhelm II was the las? | Queen victoria family, Royal weddings, Royal (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/2533343520612583)

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on February 13, 2022, 08:52:52 PM

Queen Victoria of England's bridal bouquet consisted of snowdrops.         
Royal Wedding Flowers: Queen Victoria ? Royal Central (http://www.royalcentral.co.uk/features/royal-wedding-flowers-queen-victoria-114851)

Hardly surprising. She married in February when generally flowers are not in bloom in England, and in the 19th century Britain experienced many very cold winters, with ice and snow. In the 1840s few flowers would have been imported from hot countries as well. Snowdrops are one of the very few woodland flowers out in February. It melded in too with she and Albert?s desire to have a simple wedding (even if it was one suitable in their station in life.) Snowdrops in Victorian England were considered unpretentious and very sweet flowers.

Amelie de Bedauharnais, also known as Princess Amelie of Leuchtenberg married Emperor Pedro I of Brazil on October 17, 1829.   
Wedding of Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, and Princess Am?lie de Beauharnais de Leuchtenberg. Engraving by Thierry Fr?res, 1839, Bibl? | History, Family (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/470555861057244386)

Maria Theresa of Spain was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and Elisabeth of France.   
King Louis XIV of France married Infanta Maria Theresa at the Church of Saint Jean the Baptist on June 9, 1666. The wedding took place in Saint-Jean-de-Luz because of its ideal location on the border of France and Spain.     
Wedding of french king Louis XIV with his cousin Marie Therese of... News Photo - Getty Images (http://www.gettyimages.com/license/89868463)

Emperor Napoleon I of France married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria on April 2, 1810 at the Salon Carre chapel in the Louvre.   
Pin on Napoleon Bonaparte, His life, Rise and Fall of the (http://www.pinterest.com/pin/250020216789158525)

The Royal Wedding of Frederick Louis, Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg occurred on May 8, 1736 at the Chapel Royal in St. James Palace in London.

On July 6, 1893 occurred the wedding of Prince George, Duke of York and Princess Mary of Teck at the Chapel Royal of St. James Palace in London, England.     
July 6th was also the birthday of George's sister Princess Victoria of Wales. Did Victoria have a birthday party on her brother's wedding day?

Archduchess Marie Valerie of Austria was the daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth of Austria.   
Archduke Franz Salvator was the son of Archduke Karl Salvator, Prince of Tuscany and Princess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two-Sicilies.   
Marie Valerie and Franz Salvator married in the parish church of Bad Ischl on July 31, 1890.

Marie de Bourbon-Montpensier (1605-1627), the daughter of Henri de Bourbon, Duke of Montpensier married Duke Gaston of Orleans, the brother of King Louis XIII of France in Nantes on August 6, 1626.   

On May 4, 1592 a proxy wedding was celebrated for Anne of Austria and King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland.   
Anne and her mother Maria Anna of Bavaria then departed for the wedding in Krakow.

King Leopold I of Belgium's proposal of marriage was not well received by Princess Louise Marie's father.   
Belgium was a new country.   
It was not until the summer of 1832 that King Louis Philippe I of the French agreed to the marriage.

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on January 03, 2024, 10:02:01 PM

The Imperial Wedding of Grand Duke Peter of Russia and Grand Duchess Catherine occurred onn August 21, 1745.   
The Imperial Wedding of Catherine II and Peter III [Ekaterina] - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyfW7sZTZHM)

Not what one would call an ecstatically happy marriage, not then, not later.

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on January 29, 2024, 11:05:22 PM

On May 2, 1816 Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld were married in the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House.   
The marriage of Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg in the Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House in London on 2 May 1816 (http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-marriage-of-princess-charlotte-of-wales-and-prince-leopold-88093995.html)

Princess Charlotte?s beautiful shimmering silver wedding dress still exists, and is in the Royal Collection.

RCIN 71997 - Princess Charlottes Wedding Dress (https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/trails/royal-weddings/princess-charlottes-wedding-dress)

Quote from: LouisFerdinand on January 30, 2024, 08:43:04 PM

Why did the Wedding of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold not occur in a church or a cathedral?

Charlotte?s father, the Prince Regent, had been in bad health. The wedding had already been postponed once because of this. The PR didn?t really want a public show for the Princess. It was thought better that the ceremony occur at Carlton House. Those sort of private weddings for nobility and royals weren?t unusual then. People in the early 19th would have thought any sort of public spectacle was vulgar. Even so, I think if Charlotte had been male the wedding might well have been in the Chapel at St James?s Palace.

Queen Victoria did NOT force any of her children or grandchildren into marriages that they did not want. Indeed she supported some of them in matches which were considered unsuitable. Prince Albert Victor and his love affair with Helene d'Orleans was one example. They wished to marry but religion was a big obstacle and it was not to be. She quite liked the idea of her daughter Beatrice and the Prince Imperial, son of Napoleon III and her great friend the Empress Eugenie. He was later killed, however.

Queen Victoria was a sucker for love matches like hers and the sainted Albert. All her children married their own choices. Her diary is replete with comments on unhappy matches.

VM and Ernie met in London and Queen Victoria noted that the two got on well, as did others. If there was pressure it was of the lightest. VM's mother, Pudding Face Marie, Duchess of Saxe Coburg Gotha and unhappy wife of Affie, was one who chose her daughters' husbands, if you want an example of pressure! And Victoria, for various reasons, and perhaps sensing that Affie was deeply in love with Marie's dowry not with this dumpy girl, had not been exactly keen on their marriage!

And who said that Victoria Melita's marriage to Ernie was abusive anyway? I have bios of VM and no suggestion is made of that  in anything I've read. Apparently they had very casual house parties and a lot of fun as newlyweds. And Ernie's second marriage, to a more understanding woman, was very contented and happy.

That first marriage came to grief because of two things. Ernie Hesse was bisexual with a strong homosexual component. (Even so, two children were produced from the brief marriage, a daughter Elizabeth and a stillborn son.) The other component was that VM was in love with another first cousin, a Romanov, Cyril Vladimorovich, for much of her first marriage and she later married him. There was some bitterness when she and Ernie were divorced, but no abuse. I don't know where people on the Internet get some of these stories!