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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Empress Friedrich "much depressed"

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January 20, 1901

Prince and Princess Henry of Prussia and the Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen have arrived at Kronberg to stay with the Dowager Empress Friedrich, who is described  as "terrible depressed" by the news of her mother's condition, according to a dispatch from the New York Times


The Empress is the eldest of Queen Victoria's nine children.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, the empress' eldest son, and the Duke of Connaught arrived tonight in London shortly after 6 p.m.  They were received by the Prince of Wales who came up from Osborne House to greet them.

The Prince of Wales arrived at the station, just before the train, which pulled in at 6:20 p.m.  The Duke of York, Prince Christian, and his son, Prince Albert of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Arthur of Connaught, were also in the welcoming party.

Wilhelm stepped out of the saloon car, and "saluted the Prince of Wales by kissing him on both cheeks."  The Prince returned "a similar salutation.  He then embraced the Duke of York. and shook hands "with the others."

A crowd had gathered to watch their arrivals. and as the carriages drove off,  they "uncovered their heads."  Wilhelm and the Prince of Wales "acknowledged the courtesy by raising their hats."  There were no cheers, as the crowd maintained a "mournful silence."

At 10 p.m., tonight, the Prince of Wales spent an hour on the telephone with the queen's physicians at Osborne House.  The news was not good.  The Prince and his nephew will leave early tomorrow for Osborne.  Orders were given "for a royal yacht" to be waiting to take them to the Isle of Wight.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph,  Wilhelm has asked that he be received at Osborne house as the queen's grandson, and not as the German Emperor.

"I am my grandmother's eldest grandson, and my mother is unable from illness to hasten to her bedside," Kaiser Wilhelm II said.

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