John Van der Kiste - Dearest Vicky, Darling Fritz: The Tragic Love Story of Queen Victorias Eldest Daughter and the German Emperor

Sources and Acknowledgements

V icky has attracted several biographers, from the anonymous writer (believed to be Marie Belloc Lowndes) of the authoritative The Empress Frederick: a Memoir (1913), her friend Princess Catherine Radziwill (1934), and a rather emotional, unsympathetic account by E.E.P. Tisdall (1940), to more recent studies by Richard Barkeley (1956), Egon Conte Caesar Corti (1957), Daphne Bennett (1971), Andrew Sinclair (1981) and Hannah Pakula (1996).

Fritz has fared less well. Within three years there were two biographies, a short volume by Rennell Rodd (1888) and a more extensive one by Lucy Taylor (1891). Apart from a few titles published only in Germany, there were no works in English between a one-volume English translation of Margaretha von Poschingers three-volume life edited by Sidney Whitman (1901) and one by the present author (1981). A more recent study by Patricia Kollander (1995), a political rather than personal life, has necessitated a re-evaluation of his liberal principles, which in her view have been rather exaggerated. To these may be added a dual biography of both published during their lifetime, by Dorothea Roberts (1887), which is naturally incomplete but still useful within its limitations.

These have been supplemented by a valuable series of correspondence and diaries. The Empresss letters to and from Queen Victoria have been edited successively by Roger Fulford and Agatha Ramm in six volumes, supplementing two earlier works, the controversial, largely political Letters of the Empress Frederick, edited by her godson Sir Frederick Ponsonby (1928) and the more personal The Empress Frederick writes to Sophie, edited by Arthur Gould Lee (1955). Selections from the Emperors diaries have been published in English translation, notably his war diary kept during the Franco-Prussian campaign, and those describing his travels to the east and to Spain.

I wish to acknowledge the gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen to publish certain letters of which she owns the copyright, and others which are held in the Royal Archives, Windsor. For permission to publish the latter I wish to acknowledge the gracious permission of Prince Moritz, Landgraf von Hessen, as representative of the owners of copyright in the Empress Fredericks letters. I am also indebted to the India Office Library, British Museum, for permission to publish extracts from correspondence between the Emperor, Empress, and Count Seckendorff with Baron Napier of Magdala.

I am grateful to the following publishers for permission to quote from printed sources: Cambridge University Press (Young Wilhelm, by John Rhl, 1998; The Holstein Papers, edited by Norman Rich & M.H. Fisher, 195563); Cassell Ltd (The English Empress, Conte Egon Caesar Corti, 1957); and Greenwood Press (Frederick III, Germanys liberal Emperor, by Patricia Kollander, 1995).

As ever I am eternally grateful to various friends for their moral support, advice and loan of various materials while writing this book, especially Karen Roth, Sue Woolmans, Theo Aronson, Dale Headington, and Robin Piguet; to the staff of Kensington and Chelsea Public Libraries, for ready access to their reserve collection; to my editors, Jaqueline Mitchell and Paul Ingrams. Last but not least, my mother, Kate Van der Kiste, has as always been a tower of strength in discussions on the subject and in reading through the draft manuscript.

Bibliography

All titles are published in London unless stated otherwise

I MANUSCRIPTS

Royal Archives. Letters from Princess Feodore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, and Crown Princess Frederick William, later Empress Frederick, to Queen Victoria

Napier Letters. Letters from Crown Princess Frederick William, later Empress Frederick, and Count Gtz von Seckendorff to Lord Napier of Magdala. India Office Library and Records, European Manuscripts, British Museum

Salisbury Papers. Stewards Diary; letters from Crown Prince and Princess Frederick William to the Marquess of Salisbury. Hatfield House

II BOOKS

Albert, Prince Consort. Letters of the Prince Consort, ed. Kurt Jagow, John Murray, 1938

Anon. The Empress Frederick: a Memoir, James Nisbet, 1913

Recollections of Three Kaisers, Herbert Jenkins, 1929

Aronson, Theo. The Kaisers, Cassell, 1971

Balfour, Michael. The Kaiser and his Times: with an afterword, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1975

Barkeley, Richard. The Empress Frederick: daughter of Queen Victoria, Macmillan, 1956

Battiscombe, Georgina. Queen Alexandra, Constable, 1969

Bennett, Daphne. King without a Crown: Albert, Prince Consort of England, 1819-1861, Heinemann, 1977

Vicky, Princess Royal of England and German Empress, Collins Harvill, 1971

Bigelow, Poultney. Prussian Memories 18641914, Putnam, 1915

Bloomfield, Georgina, Baroness. Reminiscences of Court and Diplomatic Life, 2 vols, Kegan, Paul, Trench, 1883

Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. Uncle of Europe: The Social and Diplomatic Life of Edward VII, Collins, 1975

Buchanan, Meriel. Queen Victorias Relations, Cassell, 1954

Blow, Bernhard von. Memoirs, 4 vols, Putnam, 1931

Bunsen, Marie von. The World I Used to Know, 18601912, Harper, 1930

Busch, Moritz. Bismarck: some Secret Pages of his History, 3 vols, Macmillan, 1898

Cecil, Lamar. Wilhelm II, Vol. I, Prince and Emperor, 18591900, University of North Carolina, 1989

Corti, Egon Caesar Conte. Alexander von Battenberg, Cassell, 1954

The English Empress: a study in the relations between Queen Victoria and her eldest daughter, Empress Frederick of Germany, Cassell, 1957

Epton, Nina. Victoria and her daughters, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1971

Eyck, Erich. Bismark and the German Empire, Allen & Unwin, 1958

Eyck, Frank. The Prince Consort: a Political Biography, Chatto & Windus, 1959

Frederick III, Emperor. Diaries of the Emperor Frederick during the Campaigns of 1866 and 187071 as well as his Journeys to the East and to Spain, ed. Margaretha von Poschinger, Chapman & Hall, 1902

War diary of the Emperor Frederick, 187071, ed. A.R. Allinson, Stanley Paul, 1927

Greville, Charles C.F. The Greville Diary, including passages hitherto withheld from publication, ed. Philip Whitwell Wilson, 2 vols, Heinemann, 1927

Haweis, H.R. Sir Morell Mackenzie, Physician and Operator, W.H. Allen, 1893

Hollyday, Frederic B.M. Bismarcks Rival: a Political Biography of General and Admiral Albrecht von Stosch, Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1960

Hough, Richard, sel. Advice to a Grand-daughter: Letters from Queen Victoria to Princess Victoria of Hesse, Heinemann, 1975

Kohut, Thomas. Wilhelm II and the Germans, Oxford University Press, 1991

Kollander, Patricia. Frederick III: Germanys liberal Emperor, Westport, Connecticut, Greenwood, 1995

Leslie, Anita. Edwardians in Love, Hutchinson, 1972

Longford, Elizabeth. Victoria R.I., Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964

ed. Darling Loosy: Letters to Princess Louise 18561939, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991

Lowe, Charles. The Tale of a Times Correspondent (Berlin 18781891), Hutchinson, 1927

Ludwig, Emil. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Putnam, 1926

Lyttelton, Sarah. The Correspondence of Sarah Spencer, Lady Lyttelton, ed. The Hon. Mrs Hugh Wyndham, John Murray, 1912

Macdonell, Anne, Lady. Reminiscences of Diplomatic Life, A. & C. Black, 1913

Mackenzie, Sir Morell. The fatal illness of Frederick the Noble, Sampson Low, 1888

McClintock, Mary Howard. The Queen thanks Sir Howard: The life of Major-General Sir Howard Elphinstone, VC, KCB, CMG