Page 125 - QDG Volume 9 No. 5

1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards other emperors were informal in England,
Germany, or France. Whilst Victoria was
a constitutional monarch, she was her
own person and was determined to use
her connections to bring about a strong
relationship between these four empires.
Her husband, Albert, was a German
Prince.
Their eldest daughter, Victoria, the
Princess Royal, was married to the king
of Prussia and she became the German
Empress and mother of Kaiser Wilhelm
2nd, the last Kaiser.
Her second daughter, Alice, married
Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse.
Her second son, Alfred, married the
Grand Duchess Maria Alesandrovna,
daughter of Tsar Alexander II and aunt of
Tsar Nicholas II, the last Tsar.
Victoria had no blood connection to
Napoleon III, but they became very good
friends and Empress Eugenia became a
close confident of the Queen.
The Habsburgs, the last of the four
empires, were Catholic and had no
immediate blood ties to Queen Victoria.
However, they were distantly connected
through Franz Ferdinand, Franz Josef’s
uncle and the Duke of Saxe-Coburg who
was Queen Victoria’s fourth cousin.
Despite this, the relationship between
the Habsburgs and the Queen was
extremely cordial. After Empress Eliz-
abeth had a nervous breakdown, she
decided to recuperate in Madeira – out
of the public eye. But the Imperial yacht
was not available, so Queen Victoria lent
her the Royal yacht, despite never having
met her. They finally met when Sisi went
on holiday to the Isle of Wight. The Queen
reported that she was enthusiastic for life,
but lacking any sense of duty! Instead,
Sisi enjoyed hunting in Leicestershire
and Rutland, visiting England and Ireland
on many occasions.
Queen Victoria finally met Franz Josef
in 1863, at her brother-in-law’s house
in Coburg. They didn’t meet again for
25 years until they had a succession of
meetings, predominantly in the South
of France. During all this time, her rela-
tionship with Franz Josef was such that
he showed diplomatic support to Britain
despite the antagonistic approach of Lord
Palmerston to Austria. Whilst they didn’t
commit troops to the Crimean campaign,
they did support Britain by mobilising
troops (which were never deployed) and
by voicing encouragement in the diplo-
matic community. During the Boer War,
Austria was the only European power
that supported the British. So, Franz Josef
was always a loyal supporter.
It was in Nice that Queen Victoria
offered Franz Josef the Colonelcy of the
123
KDG over lunch. This was part of Queen
Victoria’s strategy to unite the emperors
of Europe behind Britain. She also
offered the Scots Greys to the Tsar and
the Royal Dragoons to the Kaiser. The
Emperor accepted the offer immediately
and it was announced in the London
Gazette on the 24th March, 1896. Franz
Josef wrote to the Prince of Wales:
‘I am delighted with this beautiful
present, which will always remind me
of its kind donor, but also the gracious
disposition of The Queen, your noble
mother, who did me the singular honour
when she appointed me Colonel-in-Chief
of the King’s Dragoon Guards.’
The Emperor immediately commanded
that the KDG adopt the Habsburg Eagle
as their cap and collar bade. This was
officially approved by the army in 1898.
The Commanding Officer, Colonel
Lawrence, with two captains, Briggs (later
Major-General Sir Charles of Nery fame)
and Bell-Smyth, travelled to Vienna and
presented the Emperor with the old regi-
mental standard. In return, the Emperor
awarded the Second Class of the Order
of the Iron Crown upon Colonel Lawrence
and the Third Class on the Captains.
He gave them a set of band parts of the
Radetzky March which was written by
Johann Strauss in 1848 in honour of Field
Marshal Count Joseph Wenzel Radetzky,
with whom Palmerston had fallen out.
It has been the regimental march ever
since. He also presented a special helmet
for the Commanding Officer’s Trumpeter
along with a silver trumpet. These can be
seen in the museum in Cardiff.
The Emperor always took a close
interest in the regiment, although
he never visited. The painting of him
reviewing the troops is totally fictitious.
However, the Archduke Frederick of