First People’s Princess . . .
QUESTION Does the title The People’s Princess predate Princess Diana? Princess Mary Adelaide of cambridge (1833-1897) was popularly known as the People’s Princess.
she was the second daughter and the youngest of the three children of Prince Adolphus, Duke of cambridge, who was a son of George iii. she was the first cousin of Queen Victoria.
Princess Mary was a jovial, good-natured and popular member of the royal Family. she was also known as ‘Fat Mary’.
Her expanding waistline led to quite some problems when trying to find a husband. Prince Oscar of sweden was dispatched to england with a view to a match being made between the pair, but left having failed to propose. ‘Alas!’ stated an exasperated Lord clarendon. ‘no German prince will venture on so vast an undertaking.’
eventually a suitable candidate was found in Wurttemberg, Prince Francis of Teck. The Prince was of lower rank than Mary Adelaide, was the product of a morganatic marriage and had no succession rights to the throne of Wurttemberg, but was at least of royal blood.
The couple were married on June 12, 1866, at st Anne’s church, Kew, surrey. Four children resulted from their union, the eldest, Princess May, or Victoria Mary, went on to become Queen consort, wife of George V.
Despite having reservations about her cousin’s size (writing of her: ‘Her size is fearful. it is really a misfortune’), Queen Victoria was fond of her cousin.
she learned a great deal from her; on one occasion she saw how Mary ignored royal protocol and drove in an open carriage through London which made her immensely popular.
The public were titillated by her extravagant lifestyle. Mary had lived a life of parties, expensive food and clothes and holidays abroad. Under a cloud of debt, the Tecks fled the country in 1883. They travelled europe, staying with relatives in Germany and Austria.
Bailed out by the royal Family, the Tecks returned in 1885 and continued to live at Kensington Palace and White Lodge in richmond Park. Mary then devoted her life to charity, as patron to Barnardo’s and other children’s charities.
Mrs Charlotte Worstall, Knole, Somerset.
QUESTION Queen’s House, Greenwich, and the Banqueting House, Westminster, each claim to be the first neoclassical building in England by Inigo Jones. Which is correct?
iT WOULD be fair to say that the Queen’s House, Greenwich, was the first ‘neo- classical’ building in Britain, even though it was finished after the Banqueting House.
The Queen’s House was begun in October 1616 for Queen Anne of Denmark, consort of James i. The Banqueting House, Whitehall, was begun for James i in April 1619 and finished in late 1622.
Work on the Queen’s House stopped at ground-floor level in 1618, when Queen Anne of Denmark fell ill (she died in 1619). Work resumed in 1632 for Queen Henrietta Maria, consort of charles i, and the building was finished by 1640.
The finished building appears to be true to the original concept in 1616, so it can be regarded as the first neo- classical building in Britain. Dr Gordon Higgott, co-author of Inigo Jones Complete Architectural Drawings, London. iniGO JOnes was commissioned to design the Queen’s House in 1616 by James i’s wife, Anne of Denmark. Anne had come into the possession of Greenwich in 1613 following a rather unfortunate hunting accident.
sir Dudley carleton, writing in 1613, described the event thus: ‘ The Queen shooting a deer mistook her mark and that killed Jewel, the king’s favourite hound; at which he stormed exceedingly awhile; but after he knew who did it he was soon pacified and with much kindness wished her not to be troubled with it for he should love her never the worse; and the next day sent her a diamond worth £2,000 as a legacy from his dead dog . . .
‘The Queen by her late pacification hath gained Greenwich.’
inigo Jones (1573-1652) was particularly influenced by the classical renaissance architecture of Andrea Palladio, and revolutionised architecture by introducing elegant, classically-inspired design. in 1614 he was appointed surveyor to the king, a position he held until 1643.
in 1616, Anne of Denmark appointed inigo Jones to design the Queen’s House. He was inspired by the renaissance architecture of Andrea Palladio.
The Queen never lived to see Jones’s design realised, dying in March 1619 when only the first floor had been completed.
A. E. Lamb, Southampton.
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