The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1: 1837-1843 | Page 7

the greatest intimacy with Charles James
Fox; but by the time that he was thirty, he had severed the connection
with his former political friends, which had indeed originally arisen
more out of his personal opposition to his father than from any political
convictions. After this date he became, with intervals of vacillation, an

advanced Tory of an illiberal type. William IV. had lived so much aloof
from politics before his accession, that he had had then no very
pronounced opinions, though he was believed to be in favour of the
Reform Bill; during his reign his Tory sympathies became more
pronounced, and the position of the Whig Ministry was almost an
intolerable one. His other brothers were men of decided views, and for
the most part of high social gifts. They not only attended debates in the
House of Peers, but spoke with emotion and vigour; they held political
interviews with leading statesmen, and considered themselves entitled,
not to over-rule political movements, but to take the part in them to
which their strong convictions prompted them. They were particularly
prominent in the debates on the Catholic question, and did not hesitate
to express their views with an energy that was often embarrassing. The
Duke of York and the Duke of Cumberland had used all their influence
to encourage the King in his opposition to Catholic Emancipation,
while the Duke of Cambridge had supported that policy, and the Duke
of Sussex had spoken in the House of Lords in favour of it. The Duke
of York, a kindly, generous man, had held important commands in the
earlier part of the Revolutionary war; he had not shown tactical nor
strategical ability, but he was for many years Commander-in-Chief of
the Army, and did good administrative work in initiating and carrying
out much-needed military reforms. He had married a Prussian princess,
but left no issue, and his death, in 1827, left the succession open to his
younger brother, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William IV.,
and after him to the Princess Victoria.
[Pageheading: THE ROYAL DUKES]
The Duke of Kent was, as we shall have occasion to show, a strong
Whig with philanthropic views. But the ablest of the princes, though
also the most unpopular, was the Duke of Cumberland, who, until the
birth of the Queen's first child, was heir presumptive to the Throne. He
had been one of the most active members of the ultra-Tory party, who
had opposed to the last the Emancipation of the Catholics and the
Reform Bill. He had married a sister-in-law of the King of Prussia, and
lived much in Berlin, where he was intimate with the leaders of the
military party, who were the centre of reactionary influences in that

country, chief among them being his brother-in-law, Prince Charles of
Mecklenburg.
In private life the Duke was bluff and soldier-like, of rather a bullying
turn, and extraordinarily indifferent to the feelings of others. "Ernest is
not a bad fellow," his brother William IV. said of him, "but if anyone
has a corn, he will be sure to tread on it." He was very unpopular in
England.
On the death of William IV. he succeeded to the throne of Hanover,
and from that time seldom visited England. His first act on reaching his
kingdom was to declare invalid the Constitution which had been
granted in 1833 by William IV. His justification for this was that his
consent, as heir presumptive, which was necessary for its validity, had
not at the time been asked. The act caused great odium to be attached to
his name by all Liberals, both English and Continental, and it was
disapproved of even by his old Tory associates. None the less he soon
won great popularity in his own dominions by his zeal, good-humour,
and energy, and in 1840 he came to terms with the Estates. A new
Constitution was drawn up which preserved more of the Royal
prerogatives than the instrument of 1833. Few German princes suffered
so little in the revolution of 1848. The King died in 1851, at the age of
eighty, and left one son, George, who had been blind from his boyhood.
He was the last King of Hanover, being expelled by the Prussians in
1866. On the failure of the Ducal line of Brunswick, the grandson of
Ernest Augustus became heir to their dominions, he and his sons being
now the sole male representatives of all the branches of the House of
Brunswick, which a few generations ago was one of the most numerous
and widely-spread ruling Houses in Germany.[1]
[Footnote 1: Of the daughters of George III., Princess Amelia had died
in 1810, and the Queen of Würtemberg in 1828; two married daughters
survived--Elizabeth, wife of the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg, and
Mary, who had married