Etiquette, Royalty... and Insanity?

Countess Feodora Georgina Maud von Gleichen, was the eldest daughter of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg (a British naval officer and sculptor, and half-nephew of Queen Victoria) and his morganatic wife, Laura Seymour. – Photo from Pinterest 

From “Items of Interest Clipped for the Busy Reader”

“The Coming Princess Albert Victor... I hear from a high English source that the Princess Feodore of Schleswig-Holstein, who did the Eiffel Tower the other day, chaperoned by her elderly maiden aunt, Amelie, of the same house, is in all likelihood the coming Princess Albert Victor of Wales. She is a sister of the German Empress and a niece of Prince Christian, the dull old husband of the best of Queen Victoria's daughters, is going on 16, looks a good sort of girl, and is almost pretty. But she is not likely to improve when the bloom of youth departs, and she wants winsome graces. Evidently, she has not come to her full height. When she does, she will probably be as tall as her Imperial sister.

The Queen would like to secure to her the Crown of Great Britain, because she is descended from her Majesty's mother, the Duchess of Kent, whose first husband was Prince Leiningen. Princess Feodore has been a good deal here with a party of aristocratic English friends, some of whom are connections of her aunt-in-law on the maternal side, Countess Gleichen. Count Gleichen abandoned his high born German status to marry Laura Seymour, and is a professional sculptor, high in the Queen's favor. Against German etiquette, she has been latterly styling them both Serene Highnesses. An objection to the proposed Royal match is that the young lady's mother is in a madhouse. There is already more than a touch of insanity in the Royal family of England.”—Paris Letter, 1891

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia