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an excerpt from:
Behind The Throne
Paul H Emden 1934
Hodder & StoughtonBARON
320 pages – First Edition – Out-of-print
-----
BARON STOCKMAR
ROUGHLY a hundred and twenty years ago, round about the time of the Vienna
Congress, the utmost that anyone outside Germany knew of Coburg was that it
was the capital of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg (-Saalfeld; Gotha was not added
till later), one of the many petty German States, only a few square miles in
extent. Circumstances and possibilities in this tiny country were so limited
that a capable young man, whether a member of the princely house or a
commoner, who wanted to do something, or become somebody, had to leave the
country and enter foreign service. Thus Prince Josias, after fighting against
the Turks and then, not quite so successfully, against the Armies of the
French Revolution, had attained the rank of Field Marshal in the Austrian
Army. This was the prize and the bravura-piece of the dynasty and of the
country.
But barely a generation later much more information was available about
Coburg. There were even people, whose opinion counted, who thought that it
was too well known, that it had made itself far too well known, and that it
would not be at all a bad thing if one or other of the Coburg people had
remained at home. One sat on Belgium's new Throne, after having narrowly
escaped becoming King of Greece; another occupied the Portuguese Throne; and
in Brazil the wife of the Emperor was a Coburger. Two of the young Princes
were sons-in-law of the King of France, whose daughter, again, had married a
Coburger. And by the side of England's Throne stood a Coburger as Prince
Consort.
In the next generation, Coburg was the Ruling House in England, a Coburger
was Empress of Germany, and a branch reigned in Bulgaria.
This all followed an entirely 'peaceful conquest.' There had been no
revolutionary happenings nor great events. No battles had been fought nor
campaigns won. The Coburgers — cool and thoughtful men, who brought order and
system into everything which they undertook — were clever enough to recognise
the limits of their own abilities, and they took a manager. Resourceful,
always behind the scenes and never in the glaring light of the stage, this
curious man, who was not a statesman and had not studied diplomacy, went
forward step by step, systematically and pedantically. The rise of the House
of Coburg from historical darkness to the centre of European history, out of
small circumstances to prestige and power, is due to the work and the merits
of one man — Dr. Stockman
The history of Stockmar, his life, his position, are unique; his influence on
the leading men of his time and on events enormous. And yet must we not
to-day — just as sixty years ago, when, ten years after his death, people
began to think of him — ask the same question, 'Who was Stockmar?' Reputation
does not always follow merit, and it is true of this man, too, that his
contemporaries hardly knew him, and posterity knows little about him. It was
his wish to stand in the shadows and 'mener une existence anonyme et
souterraine' — lead in battle but himself remain invisible. At the same time
he was fully aware of his worth and his importance, was not without vanity,
and was thoroughly convinced of the great value of his advice. It is said of
him that he had something like dread of publicity, and had avoided renown.
Too much humility is sometimes nothing but a kind of pride.
Who was Stockmar? This little German country doctor, who in himself had
nothing which could in any way be called romantic, became, surely by a
romantic fate, a man of outstanding personality who was on the most
confidential footing with most of the European Sovereigns of his time, knew
all their secrets and weaknesses, and could exercise such a strong influence
at the English Court that the Ministers of the Early Victorian Age had to
reckon with him, the 'most kind, eccentric, infallible, and unfathomable
German who for twenty years had no small share in governing us.'
Charlotte, the daughter and only child of George IV, was a charming young
lady, and her royal father's daughter; hence her (short) life was very
exciting. But, apart from this 'past,' she had a future which in fact was to
prove illusory: she was the heiress to the English Throne. First she wanted
to marry the Prince of Orange; then she took an interest in the Prussian
Prince Augustus and had secret meetings with him; and finally began an extensi
ve flirtation with a certain Captain Hess. The fourth runner in this race was
Leopold of Coburg, who had small chance of being 'placed.' Although George
IV, at the time still Prince Regent, was not particularly qualified to play
the guardian of morals and good manners, yet he made intensive use of
paternal right and kingly power, and locked Charlotte up in Windsor. The
Princes of Orange and Prussia, as well as the commoner Hess' vanished, were
gone, and dropped out of the race. The Coburger had won in a canter, and his
faithfulness found its well-deserved reward: together with the hand of the
merry Charlotte he obtained the claim to be allowed at some future date to be
the husband, of a Queen of England.
The household of the young couple was set up in Claremont, and the small
Court included, as personal doctor of the Prince, a fellow-countryman whom he
had brought with him from Coburg — Christian Friedrich Stockman
The existence of the latter had until then been colourless and uneventful.
After the Public School education usual in the world of officials, he visited
the small Universities of Jena, Erlangen, and Wuerzburg to study medicine.
Many years later Stockmar writes of those days: 'If was a clever stroke, to
have originally studied medicine; without the knowledge thus acquired,
without the psychological and physiological experiences which I thus
obtained, my savoir-faire would often have gone a-begging.' Quite decidedly
Stockmar had retained all the advantages, but also all the disadvantages, of
the medical man of those days for his future activities, which were to be so
very different. He could quickly recognise a complicated situation and make a
diagnosis; still more quickly he had a remedy at hand — the only one which in
his view could be used and which was of infallible effect.
In Claremont he was bored, and the more so because the other members of the
Court looked down with a certain contempt on the plebeian foreign doctor. He
occupied his free time in studying English history and English Constitutional
questions, and in writing down painfully accurate character-studies of all
persons whom he saw at the Court. Thus he says of Wellington that he was fond
at table of whispering rather doubtful stories to Princess Charlotte; that
she showed appreciation of them and laughed heartily is no more surprising
than the fact that Wellington told them.
With the Prince and Princess, Stockmar was on the best of terms. The merry
Charlotte liked her 'Stocky,' and had much fun with him, for he, in spite of
his weak health and an inclination to hypochondria, would yet at times be
very merry and gay. The marriage which, after so many handicaps, had really
turned out quite well, found his full approval, and with a touch of humour he
wrote in his diary: 'My master is the best of all husbands in all the five
quarters of the globe; and his wife bears him an amount of love, the
greatness of which can only be compared with the English national debt.' By
the side of the dutiful and virtuous man whom Stockmar called his 'glorious
master, a manly prince and princely man,' Charlotte had changed, much to her
advantage; if formerly she had kicked over the traces, this was perhaps due
only to her former surroundings and the bad example which she saw in her
parents. She herself once declared to Stockmar: 'My mother was bad, but she
would not have become as bad as she was if my father had not been infinitely
worse.'
The nation at this time had no reason to look up to its Rulers with
particular respect. George III was blind and practically mad, and the Prince
Regent was as his daughter described him. In addition, times were quite
particularly bad. After the Napoleonic wars, trade was at a deadlock in all
its branches, unemployment had reached critical proportions, and in some
industrial towns there had been noisy gatherings and riots. All hopes of
better times concentrated on Charlotte, the heiress to the Throne, and her
popularity grew still more when it became known that in Claremont a child
might be expected which would one day rule over England in succession to its
mother. The extraordinary interest which the nation took in this child is
shown by an entry in Stockmar's diary: 'Bets for enormous sums have long been
made on the sex of the expected child, and it has been already calculated on
the Stock Exchange that a Princess would only raise the funds 21 per cent,
whilst a Prince would send them up 6 per cent. In order to obtain sure
intelligence respecting the condition of the Princess as soon as possible,
the Ambassadors of the highest Powers have paid me, the poor doctor, the most
friendly and obliging visits.'
But the visits were paid in vain, and things turned out very differently.
Stockmar was the physician of the Prince, not the Physician-in-Ordinary of
the Princess, although he might have become so if he had tried. Thus he had
nothing to do with Charlotte's confinement, and could refuse to interfere in
any way during the months of pregnancy. In addition to the
Physician-in-Ordinary, Dr. Baillie, Sir Richard Croft was called. in as
specialist. Stockmar has written with regard to those months: 'I can only
thank God that I never allowed myself to be blinded by vanity, but always
kept in view the danger that must necessarily accrue to me if I arrogantly
and imprudently pushed myself into a place in which a foreigner could never
expect to reap honour, but possibly plenty of blame. I knew the hidden rocks
too well, and knew that the national pride and contempt for foreigners would
accord no share of honour to me if the result were favourable, and, in an
unfavourable issue, would heap all the blame on me. As I had before at
various times, when the physician was not at hand, prescribed for the
Princess, these considerations induced me to explain to the Prince that, from
the commencement of her pregnancy, I must decline all and any share in the
treatment'; and later, 'When I recall all the circumstances, I feel but too
vividly the greatness of the danger which I escaped.'
Assuredly Stockmar had escaped from a great danger. Very coolly, very
logically, he had considered and decided. There could thus be no question of
a Doctor's Dilemma for him; at the crossroads he had decided for the
dangerless path, which could carry no kind of responsibility with it. The
future politician had considered discretion as the better part of valour; but
whether the then physician acted correctly is another question.
The Ministers, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the great Dignitaries of State,
had gathered at Claremont to await the birth of the young heir to the Throne,
but a dead boy was born. Five hours later Charlotte was dead too.
As to these hours, decisive for the English Reigning House and for the House
of Coburg, the diary relates that Croft came to Stockmar to inform him that
the Princess was dangerously ill, and that he ought to prepare the Prince for
the worst. He insisted that Stockmar should look after the patient. 'I
hesitated, but at last I went with him. . . . Baillie said to her, "There
comes an old friend of yours." She stretched out her left hand eagerly to me,
and pressed mine twice vehemently. . . . Baillie kept giving her wine
constantly. She said to me, "They have made me tipsy." . . . I had just left
the room when she called out loudly, "Stocky! Stocky!" '
The task of telling the Prince of her death fell to Stockmar. 'I did so in no
very definite words. He thought she was not yet dead, and on his way to her
room he sank into a chair. I knelt by him; he thought it must be a dream; he
could not believe it. He sent me once more to see about her; I came back and
told him it was all over. Then we went to the chamber of death; kneeling by
the bed, he kissed her cold hands, and then, raising himself up, he pressed
me to him and said, "I am now quite desolate. Promise me always to sit with
me." I promised.'
Stockmar kept this promise: no Prince could have had in his service a more
unselfish friend, nor one who might more justly have said of himself, 'I seem
to be here to care more for others than for myself, and am well content with
this destiny.' But, for both, fate and history had great things in store.
Fate was unkind to Sir Richard Croft, with whom Stockmar kept in touch after
the unlucky confinement. 'My mind is at present in a sad state. May God grant
that neither you nor any connected with you may suffer what I do at this
moment,' wrote Sir Richard, who could not forget the terrible hours at
Claremont, or bear the responsibility which Stockmar had evaded. Croft's
condition grew into a state of deepest anxiety and excitement bordering on
insanity, so that he lost all command of himself. At the next difficult
confinement which Sir Richard had to attend he became quite beside himself.
In the room adjoining the sick-room he found a pistol. With this he shot
himself. The patient was safely confined.
'Poor Croft,' exclaims Stockmar in his diary.
Leopold's English dream was finished, but the first step into the great world
was taken, et c'est toujours le premier pas qui coute. Leopold, the pacemaker
for Coburg, had Claremont, a very ample annuity which Parliament had granted
him, and he had Stockman He could afford to wait.
But the two Coburgers had longer to wait than they had expected before new
possibilities dawned on the political or any other horizon. The long stay in
Claremont was agreeably interrupted by journeys to France, Italy, and
Germany, and Stockmar made good use of the time by not only continuing his
studies of history and the English Constitution, but also by getting married.
True it is that during the next twenty years he was not to see too much of
his new family, for Stockmar exercised his profession ambulando. His position
as doctor had given place to a more extensive one at the Court of the Prince;
he looked after Leopold's private affairs as Secretary, became Keeper of the
Privy Purse and Comptroller of the Household. Occupying this purely Court
office, he had not long to wait for a Coburg title, and soon after was raised
to the nobility.
The little doctor to an unimportant Princeling had now grown into the Chief
Court Official and intimate confidant of a great gentleman. He became
acquainted with the social and political life of England, and met many
important and influential men. Insight into many things was gained, and the
outlook broadened. And the opportunity to make use of the experience thus
obtained arrived in due course: Leopold was offered the Throne of Greece, and
there he intended — but other Princely Houses had the same intention — to set
up a Coburg Dynasty.
It was at this time that the Romantics of all nations united, and believed it
was possible to restore the ancient Hellenic glory by a new Renaissance.
Byron was drawn to its 'Land of lost gods and godlike men,' and Wolfgang
Mueller, the father of the German-English-Sanscrit Max Mueller who was to
play his part in the posthumous Life of Stockmar, sang his Greek songs,
'Without thee, 0 Hellas, what would the world be!'
Complicated and many-sided negotiations took place, which on Leopold's side
were conducted by Stockmar and his brother Charles,' and on the Greek side by
Kapodistrias. Further European candidates appeared, a European game of
intrigues began, Leopold-Stockmar made conditions which the European Powers
refused to accept. Aberdeen wrote to Leopold, 'The Powers have no intention
whatever of negotiating with Your R.H. They expect a simple acceptance of
their proposal, and would consider a conditional acceptance as a virtual
refusal.' Stockmar was not prepared to advise his master to accept
unconditionally, and thus the offer was finally refused. It is not quite
clear what the Coburgers really wanted, nor is there any evidence that they
seriously intended to exchange Claremont for the neighbourhood of the
Acropolis. Perhaps they feared the Greeks, especially when they offered
Crowns. Nor did Stockmar distinguish himself by his diplomacy. George IV was
heartily amused by the attempt, and gave Leopold the nickname of 'Marquis
Peu-a-Peu'; Europe looked upon him as an irresolute intriguer. Further, it
must have been difficult for Leopold to arrive at a decision, for in the
background there was always the possibility that, for lack of grown-up heirs,
or of any heirs at all, he might be called to the Regency of England. True it
is that Stockmar denies quite vigorously that his final advice to refuse was
influenced by this possibility, but such views very often come post hoc.
However this may be, the affair with Greece had fallen through, and, when it
had fallen through, Stockmar blamed his master because he had not followed
his advice.
Here we notice for the first time Stockmar's quality, which increased with
the years, of looking upon his advice and upon himself as a 'display of
oracular wisdom'; what he said was infallibly right; what he advised must
lead to success. If his 'patients' — the practice of this former physician
will yet be considerably extended, and he will write prescriptions for half Eu
rope — do not strictly obey his instructions, he is always ready with his
unpleasant 'I told you so.'
The stages 'England' and 'Greece' were over. But as it is well known not only
that 'opportunity makes desire,' but also that 'opportunities, like eggs,
come one at a time,' just a year later another possibility dawned: Leopold
was to become King of Belgium.
The Belgian Provinces had risen against Dutch Dominion, had declared
themselves independent, and were now looking for a Ruler. Why should not a
German Prince, who had felt in himself the ability first to become a good
Englishman, then a good Greek, now also think himself capable of becoming a
good Belgian? From the start Leopold had good expectations; competition was
small, and, above all things, Europe could easily agree upon him, as everyone
was willing that the little Dynasty of Coburg, which, at that time, occupied
no European Throne apart from the home one, should have this little rise, and
no one was jealous. Leopold could be sure of the consent of England and of
Germany; thanks to his military past in Russia, the Empire of the Tsars was
also for him. France raised objections, and Count Sebastiani threatened, 'Si
SaxeCoburg met un pied en Belgique, nous lui tirerons des coups de canon'
('If Saxe-Coburg puts one foot into Belgium we shall fire our guns on him').
In order to overcome this obstacle, the cautious widower discovered in time
his love for a daughter of the French King. (Louis-Philippe, the
father-in-law, was very glad, after the Revolution and the loss of his
throne, to find an asylum with his family in Claremont.)
The novelty in the formation of Belgium, the rise of a purely Constitutional
State opposed to the reactionary Continental Europe, attracted Leopold and
Stockmar. Extensive negotiations between the Belgian statesmen, the candidate
to the Throne, and the European Cabinets made this problem, which in any case
was not too simple, more and more complicated, till finally it became as
complicated as later on the Schleswig-Holstein question, of which Palmerston
had once said, 'Only two men really understood it. One of them, Prince
Albert, is dead. I am the other — and I have forgotten all about it.'
Stockmar was the right man to throw himself into such negotiations, to think
of everything and to forget nothing. His influence on events grew steadily.
Leopold, sitting still in Marlborough House and waiting and doing nothing
without Stockmar, who had already hastened to Belgium, once wrote to him, 'My
dear Stockmar, read the Constitution and give me your opinion.' Stockmar
read, studied, wrote one memorandum after the other, and had already
considered how the Court should be arranged -that a 'Lutheran Chapel is
indispensable. People say, "We don't ask whether he is a Lutheran, but we ask
whether he goes to his own Church in his own way." ' Stockmar was able during
these extensive and difficult negotiations never to drop out of the role of
the agent intime. He never in any way touched, in the slightest degree, the
departments of the official Belgian diplomats.
The Belgian question was settled, and, in spite of serious reverses at the
start, was settled finally. A political work had arisen which was on a firm
foundation, and stood so well that even the Great War, which in fact became a
world war for the sake of Belgian neutrality, could not injure it. Within the
meaning of the Coburg ambitions and within the meaning of the cautious
Stockmar, the new State had come into being. Leopold could enter Brussels.
Coburg had arrived.
pps. 21-31
=====
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
BARON CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH VON STOCKMAR
(TM COBURG MARRIAGES)
1787 Stockmar born in Coburg, August 22nd.
1790 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg born.
1796 Charlotte, d. of the Prince Regent (George IV) born.
1805-10 Stockmar student of medicine.
1816 Marriage of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Princess Charlotte.
Stockmar's arrival in Claremont.
1817 Charlotte died.
1818 Marriages of the Dukes of Cambridge, Clarence and Kent.
1819 Victoria, d. of the Duke of Kent, born May 24th.
Albert of Saxe-Coburg, born August 26th.
1821 Stockmar receives Saxon nobility.
Stockmar's marriage with his cousin Fanny Sommer.
1829-30 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg's candidature for the Greek Throne.
1831 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg King of the Belgians.
Stockmar raised to the rank of Baron in Bavaria.
1832 Marriage of King Leopold and Louise of Orleans, d. of King Louis
Philippe. (Their grandson was Albert, the late King of the Belgians.)
1834-36 Stockmar mainly in Coburg.
1836 Stockmar's preparations for the accession of Princess Victoria.
Albert of Saxe-Coburg's first visit in England.
Marriage of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Maria da Gloria, Queen of
Portugal. (Among their great- grandsons are Manoel, the last King of
Portugal, and Carol, the present King of Roumania.)
1837 Victoria's majority, May 24th.
Stockmar's arrival in England, May 25th.
Queen Victoria's accession, June 20th.
1837-38 Stockmar Private Secretary to Queen Victoria.
1838 Stockmar and Prince Albert in Italy.
1839 Marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg.
1840 Stockmar raised to the rank of Baron in Austria.
Princess Royal (Empress Frederick) born.
Marriage of Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and the Duc de Nemours, son of King
Louis Philippe.
1840-47 The Spanish marriages.
1841 Prince of Wales (King Edward VII) born.
1842 King Frederick William IV of Prussia in England.
Marriage of Prince Augustus of Saxe-Coburg and Clementine of Orleans, d.
of King Louis Philippe. (Their son is King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, father of
the present King Boris.)
1843 Marriage of Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Maria Clementine, d.
of King Louis Philippe.
1847 Queen Maria of Portugal appeals to Queen Victoria for protection.
1848 Revolution in Prussia.
Prince William (Emperor William I) refugee in England.
Stockmar Deputy for Coburg at German Diet.
1854 Popular suspicion of Prince Albert.
1857 Prince Albert receives title of Prince Consort.
Stockmar's final departure from England.
1858 Marriage of the Princess Royal and Prince Frederick of Prussia
(Emperor Frederick III).
Stockmar in Berlin and Potsdam.
1860 Queen Victoria and Prince Consort visit Stockmar in Coburg.
1861 Prince Consort died, December 14th.
1863 Stockmar died, July 9th.
1872 Stockmar's memoirs published: Germany, May; England, November.
pps.82-83
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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