April 23, 1903
The Marquise de Fontenoy is reporting that it was former Queen Marie of Hannover who "was responsible for the affront placed by her son, the Duke of Cumberland, upon Kaiser Wilhelm II, when he left Copenhagen just before Wilhelm's arrival.
It seems that arrangements had been made to complete the arrangements for a marriage between Crown Prince Wilhelm, the Kaiser's eldest son, and Princess Alexandra of Cumberland, and to restore the Duke of Cumberland to the duchy of Brunswick.
Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, King Edward VII, whose sister-in-law is married to the Duke of Cumberland, the Dowager Empress of Russia and the Kings of Denmark and Greece, have all been trying to effect a reconciliation between the Hannover and Prussian families. This reconciliation would "strengthen Germany unity by cutting the ground under the feet of the Guelph party.
But the elderly Queen Marie, who lives at Gmunden in Austria, reminded her son of his pledge to his father, the late King Georg V, and "entreating" him to wait until after her death before consenting to a reconciliation with the Kaiser.
The Duke of Cumberland is devoted to his mother, "a wonderfully strong character, and he "yielded to her entreaty," leaving Copenhagen at a moment's notice, thus ending the efforts of his own family who worked behind the scenes to bring about the meeting ... and the marriage of his daughter to the Crown Prince.
It is unlikely that the marriage will now take place.
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