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THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. 460.-JULY, 1919.

Art. 1.-QUEEN VICTORIA AND FRANCE.*

WHEN the Princess Victoria was born, on May 24, 1819, she had, except for somewhat distant connexions with the Royal Houses of Holland and Denmark, no relation who was not of German blood. The nation over which she was to rule had willed that it should be so. In the second half of the 17th century, the reigns of two monarchs who were half-French had convinced the people of this country that their future sovereigns must be chosen from the German House which could trace its descent, through James I to Henry VII and Edward IV and so to William the Norman, and through James VI to Robert the Bruce and so to Malcolm Canmore and his English Queen, the descendant of Alfred the Great. Three considerations made it certain that the House of Hanover would inter-marry with German princely families. Our law provided that all such marriages must be with Protestants; and the custom of the time, subsequently supported by the Royal Marriage Act of 1772, ensured that the marriages of royal personages should be contracted within the limits of what may be described as royal circles. Germany abounded in Protestant princes and princesses; and it was, therefore, in the nature of things that they should provide from among their number consorts for British princes and princesses.

At the date of Princess Victoria's birth, the danger from France was at an end; and it was a fortunate

The quotations marked with an asterisk are taken from Queen Victoria's unpublished correspondence and diaries, by gracious permission of H.M. The King.

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