Practical Organization,' by Capt. Valentine the Princess Royal. 'A Bridal Procession,' The approaching marriage of the Princess Marriage of Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, on the 25th of January, calls forth a characteristic article from Dr. Doran on the 16th, entitled 'A Bridal Procession,' giving a sketch of the marriages of by Dr. Doran. English princesses from that of the first princess born on English soil, Matilda, daughter of Matilda and Henry V. Henry I. "She was but seven years old when an army of German nobles came hither to ask her hand for the Emperor Henry the Fifth. Her sire was hard put to it to fit out this little lass with a dowry, but the happy and natural thought struck him that it would be most seemly, and certainly most convenient, to compel the patient public to furnish the 'tocher.' Accordingly, the enormous tax of 35. was levied on every hide of land throughout the kingdom! Since the establishment of that admirable precedent, it has been the privilege of the people to provide portions for the daughters of Royalty." Among others included in the "procession is Isabella, John's second daughter, "an un- Isabella and usually pretty girl, with especially sparkling eyes," who when she repaired to Worms to be married to the Emperor Frederick II. took with her "such a mighty load of clothing, and fur Frederick II. Margaret of and Alex ander III. Margaret and niture, and dishes and pots and pans (all silvered), and light knick-knacks, and heavy boxes, that merely to catalogue them would demand a Supplement at our hands. Four kings stood by to present her to her lord, and money was scattered at the wedding festivities as if every man had a plethora of wealth, and to bleed freely was at once a benefit and a luxury." Margaret of Windsor, daughter of Henry III., married Alexander III., and owing to the "very sanguinary quarrels " which arose whenever the English and Scotch nobles who attended as guests met in the streets, the wedding "was cleverly celebrated in a snug way so early in the morning, that the ceremony was concluded before half the riotous nobles were out of their beds." The King of England dubbed the bridegroom a knight, "but no persuasion or remonstrance could induce 'King Sandy' to pay the usual fee!" Henry VII.'s daughter Margaret the morning after the nuptials received as a morrowing gift from her husband, James IV. of Scotland, the title deeds of the lands of Kilmarnock. "The bride was as merry as the groom was liberal; and the familiarity established is evidenced by the fact, that thus early she, and even her ladies, began clipping the king's beard,—an amusement which was considered an excellent joke by the whole party. The above royal marriage was celebrated between 8 and 9 in the morning,and this has been considered as a very matutinal hour. But some years later, and in the same month, August, Mary Stuart, in widow's weeds, stood at the same altar, with that long lad,' Lord Darnley, and their nuptials were all over between 5 and 6 o'clock-long before breakfasttime." Mary and the Suffolk. "Madame Mary, pearl of England," was sent across the sea, with an escort of 2,000 archers of Henry's body-guard, to be married to Louis XII. of France. "In a few months the Queen was a widow, and then speedily ensued that private marriage with Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, —which, being an accomplished fact, the king was fain to sanction. The Princess kept house in the Borough; and the dust of a wife, who was happier with a duke than with a king, lies within the splendid ruins at Bury St. Edmunds." Elizabeth, daughter of James I., married Elizabeth Frederick, Count Palatine, afterwards Palatine, afterwards the "Winter King." "Winter King" of Bohemia. "The most singular incident connected with the performance of this marriage was, that it was regularly asked by the publication of banns in the Chapel Royal! The nuptials were celebrated in February 1613. So pure and brilliant looked the bride and her twelve maids, that their passage, and the second Prince William of it was said, 'looked like a Milky Way.' The expenses of this gorgeously celebrated marriage cost the country nearly 100,000l., nearly 8,000l. was expended in fireworks alone, on the Thames." "In May 1641, occurred the last of what may Mary and the be called the child - marriages, when Mary, of Orange. daughter of Charles the First, then in her tenth year, was married, in the Chapel Royal, Whitehall, to William, afterwards second Prince of Orange. There was a bevy of very little bridesmaids, all in cloth of silver, and Bishop Wren blessed the happy union! The bridegroom was only eleven. The wedding festivity had much the aspect of a good romping 'children's party."" Mary, daughter of the Duke of York (James Mary and II.), married "another and a greater William of Orange. Orange, the son of the couple last mentioned. This was in November 1677. The lady is said to have been unwilling; and Charles the Second had no greater delight than in making the grave Dutch lover drunk, and inducing him to break the windows of the maids of honour! The incident worth remarking on this occasion is, that the ceremony of marriage took place in the bed-chamber of the Princess at nine o'clock at night. Charles the Second acted as 'father,' and kept the whole assembly in ecstacy or wonder at the excess of his joviality and his loud irreverence. He interrupted the Bishop, and talked jokingly to the bride, answered more than was set down for him as 'father,' and finally, after supper was over, speeches made, posset drunk, and cake broken, the merry and tipsy monarch drew the curtains with his own. royal hand, and a halloo such as Squire Western might have given of 'St. George for England!"" The last high festival of kings, queens, and such like august personages held in Lincoln's Inn Fields was on the occasion of the Duke of Brunswick's marriage to the Princess Augusta and Augusta, when "a right royal supper" was given the Duke of at Leicester House. "With our usual happy felicity, the bridegroom was entertained at Covent Garden with a comedy bearing the remarkably appropriate title, 'He's nobody's enemy but his own!' At the opera, the crowd was so great that ladies got out of their sedans in Piccadilly, and powdered beaux going before them and imitating the knights of old, as far as in them lay, drew their bodkin-swords and threatened to cut a way for the ladies to `the doors of their boxes." - The last marriage referred to is that of the Brunswick. Princess Charlotte of Wales," at Carlton House, Charlotte anl late on a May evening, in 1816, to Prince Leopold. Leopold, the present King of the Belgians." The bride's waist "was just under her arms, and VOL. II. E |